India Proposed a 10-Year Jail Term for Crypto Dealings

India proposed a 10-year jail term to citizens for crypto dealings, as revealed by BloombergQuint on 6 June. This proposed regulation applies to citizens who buy, sell, mine, deal cryptocurrencies directly or indirectly in India.

The new law proposal is part of the draft bill titled “Banning Cryptocurrencies and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill 2019”. If the bill is passed, holders of cryptocurrency will have to declare and dispose their cryptocurrencies within 90 days “in accordance with the prescription of central government”, as reported by the Block. In addition, a penalty system is in place to envision fines worth a three-fold amount from the “losses caused to the system” or gains of crypto holders. The offense is considered “cognizable and non-bailable” as a 10-year jail term will be imposed to the lawbreaker.

The bill also proposed the launch of national cryptocurrency called the Digital Rupee. However, the Indian central bank – Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced earlier this year in January that it delayed the launch of the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) as to address key concerns such as black money and cyber-security threats. Praveen Kumar, Founder of crypto exchange Belfrics said “It is premature for RBI to launch crypto-rupee, as more understanding of the crypto economy need to be achieved. It is a right decision to delay the process and see how the publicly traded peer-to-peer economy is shaping up.”

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