Indian Finance Minister Cites Terror Funding, Money Laundering as Biggest Risk of Cryptocurrency

Presenting the annual budget on 1 February, the Indian Finance Minister announced a flat 30 percent tax on income from cryptocurrency. She also proposed that the apex bank -- Reserve Bank of India -- would introduce a digital currency in the next financial year beginning April 2022 to boost digital economy and efficient currency management.

The biggest risk of cryptocurrency could be money laundering and its use for terror funding amid the pioneering fintech revolution, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said

Sitharaman made her comments while addressing a seminar during the ongoing spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the US on Monday.

Focussing on the regulation of digital currency, Sitharaman said: "I think regulation using technology is the only answer. Regulation using technology will have to be so adept, that it has to be not behind the curve, but be sure that it is on the top of it. And that's not possible. If any one country thinks that it can handle it, it has to be across the board."

Stressing the increased digital adoption rate in the country during the pandemic, she highlighted India’s performance in the digital world and the efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's federal government to build the digital infrastructure framework over the last decade.

Asserting that the pandemic helped India in digital adoption, Sitharaman said: "If I use 2019 data, the digital adoption rate in India is about 85 per cent. But globally that same year it was only somewhere near 64 per cent.”

Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman arrived in Washington on Monday morning on an official visit for the spring meetings at the World Bank, the G20 Finance Ministers meeting, and the Central Bank Governor Meeting (FMCBG).

Apart from her official engagements, the Indian Finance Minister will also attend an event at the Atlantic Council, a Washington DC-based think tank.