NewDelhi: Holding, selling or dealing in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies could soon send you behind bars for at least 10 years. The “Banning of Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill 2019” draft has proposed jail term of 10 years for persons who “mine, generate, hold, sell, transfer, dispose, issue or deal in cryptocurrencies”.
The bill is aimed at making cryptocurrencies completely illegal and holding of cryptos a non-bailable offence. Based on blockchain technology, a cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency which makes use of cryptography for security. The blockchain technology is actually a distributed ledger enforced by a disparate network of computers, reported. Bitcoin is world’s most popular cryptocurrency.
It is learnt that several government bodies, including the Income Tax Department and the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) had called for a ban on cryptocurrencies because there are high chances of them being misused for money laundering and other criminal activities.
Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg was given the responsibility by the government to come up with the draft bill for banning cryptocurrency. While the government is set to implement strict laws to deal with those involved in dealing with cryptocurrency, it is likely that India would soon get a digital currency of its own. “A decision on the launch of Digital Rupee would be taken after consulting the Reserve Bank of India (RBI),” a government official told.
Last year, it was reported that the government was planning to introduce its own virtual currency called “Laxmi”, however no official announcement was made in this regard. It may be recalled that while presenting his Budget speech, then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that cryptocurrencies were illegal and the government would not recognise them.
Bureau Report
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