The law for regulating the cryptocurrency industry in India is unlikely until the next session of the Parliament in April. According to online news sources, work on the crypto bill, Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill 2021, is still in progress. Some people who are familiar with the matter said that the bill will most likely come out by May 2022. The bill was initially supposed to be discussed in the winter session of the Parliament, which ended on December 22, 2021. However, it was later dropped as the government had decided to conduct more consultations on that bill.
According to some individuals working closely with the Indian Finance Ministry, the drafting of the bill will not be completed before the end of March. This is because the Finance Ministry has some other issues on priority. This news has left the cryptocurrency industry in India hanging in the balance. The delays in the bill have resulted in a slowing down of the adoption of crypto. The uncertainty regarding the crypto regulation had hit the lowest point in 2018. In April that year, the central bank of India, RBI, had banned the banks from engaging with and supporting crypto transactions. However, the Supreme Court had later overturned the decision, almost 2 years later.
The delay in the crypto regulation has also given the crypto industry stakeholders the necessary time to comply with the government. The bill allows some exceptions for promoting cryptocurrency technology. Although it will be banned as a payment or currency, it could still be used as an asset.
