India: Legal experts divided on pre-budget crypto-wishlist ahead of Union Budget

ambcrypto.com:

Previous reports have clarified that it is unlikely that a comprehensive crypto-bill will be introduced in the Parliament for the upcoming Budget Session on 1 February.

However, the crypto-industry in India remains both hopeful and divided about it. Local media reports suggest that one section of legal experts wants the government to break the status quo to introduce clear guidelines for the crypto-sector. On the contrary, the other wants the government to wait and discuss the definition and use cases that would apply to each crypto-instrument.

While speaking to a news publication, ICICI Bank’s group general counsel Pramod Rao commented,

“The government’s pause is a good thing for us to wait and watch, and decide whether we need a separate regulator, which can transcend into all use cases.”

His comment is regarding the government’s decision to push the much-awaited crypto-bill last year as well for the second time. The crypto-bill was supposed to be tabled in the Winter Session of the Indian Parliament that kickstarted on 29 November and concluded on 23 December 2021.

Additionally, it was assumed that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) will oversee the country’s crypto market and no new regulator will be introduced for the sector.

Having said that, Sriram Chakravarthi, partner at Singapore-based law firm Rajah & Tann, said it’s time for some clarity. He noted,

“It is better to have a process of constant evolution, consultation and then come up with guidelines, etc, and looking at how they work rather than the wait-and-watch approach.”

As far as industry representatives are concerned, Sharan Nair, Chief Business Officer at CoinSwitch Kuber, told AMBCrypto that leading crypto-exchanges follow strict self-regulatory