MP Urges Indian Government To Withdraw 50 Percent Crypto Income Tax

The Indian government has been urged to increase the crypto tax by up to 50 percent. (Pixabay)

JAKARTA – One member of parliament from India is pushing the government to increase the income tax from crypto. Unmitigated, Sushil Kumar Modi asked the government to collect a tax of 50 percent of crypto.

For information, Sushil Kumar Modi is a member of the Rajya Sabha, India's highest parliamentary assembly. Because of his decision, Modi has made headlines there because he wants to impose a tax of more than 30 percent.

“The government hasn't said many words... that crypto is like gambling. It's like a lottery, it's like a casino, it's like a horse race... and in all these things the tax rates are very high,” Modi said.

Reporting from Bitcoin.com News, in addition to wanting to impose a 50 percent tax on crypto income, Modi also suggested imposing a 28 percent goods and services tax (GST) on the entire value of crypto transactions, rather than only applying 18 percent GST on services provided by exchanges. crypto. "Such as gambling, horse racing, casinos, lotteries, GST must be present in all transaction values," he said.

Lawmakers then compared crypto to traditional investments. Stating that the stocks have the company behind them, “no one knows who is behind this crypto,” he points out. “We need to prevent and disincentive” trading and investment in the asset class, Modi said.

He explained that the Indian government is working on crypto legislation and needs to decide in the near future whether crypto is an asset, a commodity, a stock, a good or a service. The lawmaker noted that it was important for the Indian government to discuss crypto laws with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

In addition, Modi vehemently denied that India would adopt Bitcoin as an official means of payment.

“One thing is very clear, the Indian government will not legalize (crypto) like El Salvador or Ukraine. It will not be treated like legal tender or fiat currency," he added.

He added that crypto is not good for the financial stability of any country. Hence only countries with unstable financial systems legalize Bitcoin payments, as El Salvador did.