No Official Ban on Cryptocurrencies In India

Anurag Thakur, Minister of State for Finance in India has said that there is no law in India expressly prohibiting the use of cryptocurrencies. This was reported by Inc42 on July 19th.

He said this during a recent exchange between a Member of Parliament (MP) and Thakur inside of Rajya Sabha the “Council of States” or upper house of Indian legislature.

MP Dharmapuri Srinivas reportedly asked Thakur about whether cryptocurrency was actually illegal. Srinivas asked:

“Whether the government has taken note about the prevalence of cryptocurrency in the country and if any action is being taken against the persons who are responsible for running the cryptocurrency in the market?”

Thakur said no to this.

Thakur further explained that there is no law specific to crypto to refer to. Cryptocurrency activities are only actionable offenses if they violate preexisting laws.

It has been rumored that an unverified, leaked bill draft entitled “Banning of Cryptocurrency & Regulation of Official Digital Currencies” would ban all “non-official” cryptocurrencies.