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Days after Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das sounded alarm on crypto-currencies warning very serious risk it poses for macro economy and financial stability of the country, the government’s legislative agenda for the upcoming winter session of Parliament showed it plans to ban private crypto-currencies such as bitcoin.
Government is set to introduce “The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021" in the winter session of Parliament beginning 29 November for consideration and passing. The bill aims “to create a facilitative framework for creation of the official digital currency to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India. The Bill also seeks to prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India, however, it allows for certain exceptions to promote the underlying technology of cryptocurrency and its uses," it said in a notification on Lok Sabha website.
"When the RBI, after due internal deliberation, says that there are serious concerns on macro economic and financial stability, there are deeper issues, which need much deeper discussions and much more well informed discussions," Das said while addressing the 8th SBI Banking and Economic Conclave last week.
Earlier last week, the RBI governor at an event had said that new-age currencies pose serious threats to the macroeconomic and financial stability of the country and also doubted the number of investors trading on them as well their claimed market value.
After a meeting of the Parliamentary standing committee on finance on crypto-currencies last week, chairman of the committee Jayant Sinha had told CNBC TV18 that it is important to balance innovation and regulation. Citing crypto exchange representatives who attended the meeting, Sinha said that various exchanges together have 15 million KYC-approved users, with an investment value of $6 billion.
On March 4, 2021, the apex court had set aside an RBI circular of 6 April, 2018, prohibiting banks and entities regulated by it from providing services in relation to virtual currencies.
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