Tensions between the Indian government and crypto market players remain. The Indian government is still looking for ways to curb the development of the crypto market. The latest Indian government has accused 11 crypto exchanges like WazirX, CoinDCX, CoinSwitch Kuber of acting to evade taxes as reported by National Finance Minister Pankaj Chaudhary in a written reply to Parliament on Monday.
Following pressure from the given, the central government has recovered a total of ₹ 95.86 crore, or almost $ 12.58 million, from 11 crypto exchanges for evading Goods and Services Tax (GST). In a written reply to a query in the Indian Parliament, Pankaj Chaudhary revealed that the government had managed to recover the GST tax revenue along with interest charges and penalties.
The crypto exchanges involved are Zanmai Labs (WazirX), CoinDCX, CoinSwitch Kuber, Buy Ucoin, UnoCoin, Flitpay, Zeb IT Services, Secure Bitcoin Traders, Giottus Technologies, Awlencan Innovations India (Zebpay) and Discidium Internet Labs.
It was also informed that the government so far has not had data on the total number of crypto exchanges operating in India. But avoiding paying taxes is an offense. The crypto exchanges that evaded paying the largest amount of tax came from WazirX, CoinDCX and CoinSwitch Kuber at 40.51 crore, ₹ 15.70 crore and ₹ 13.76 crore respectively.
Pratik Gauri, founder of the 5ireChain blockchain ecosystem thinks governments are so far more inclined to regulate in an attempt to understand the various challenges that will be faced in the implementation of crypto laws.
The Indian government will reportedly see attempts to explore technological advances with blockchain technology. During the latest 2022-23 budget in February, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a 30% tax on cryptocurrencies.
Recently, the Indian Parliament passed the Finance Bill 2022 having passed a 30% crypto tax and an additional 1% tax despite facing criticism.
