Things could soon become difficult for those interested in cryptocurrencies and residing in India, as the government is looking to implement a new law that would tax all income from digital assets.

Currently being proposed as a bill, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman says the Indian government is looking at ways to more highly regulate digital currencies within its borders which, if successful, would be a move that no other countries have been able to fully implement.

Sitharaman noted that crypto is currently a “high risk” area and noted that “more can be done” when it comes to regulation of the sector.

“The earlier attempt was definitely to come up with a Bill that the house can consider. But, later, because rapidly a lot of things had to come into play, we had started working on a new Bill. This is the Bill that is now being proposed,” she told Parliament earlier in the week.

The literature of the bill, which is a draft for now, explains that a tax of 30 percent could be applied to all digital assets owned by an individual, including NFTs.

This would take the form of a levy on all exchanges, which could force those in the industry to think long and hard before pulling the trigger on an exchange.

While such a move would prove divisive, from the Indian government’s perspective, it is a tactic designed to stabilise the volatility of digital assets currently, which as we have seen with recent pump-and-dump scams, can prove damaging for people who are none the wiser.

It remains to be seen if such a bill would pass, but as The Next Web points out, India has significant plans when it comes to crypto, having this week outlined an initiative to develop its own digital currency.

This would be used by the country’s central bank when the 2022/2023 fiscal year begins.

Either way, it looks like the Asian powerhouses, namely China and India, are going to have a big say when it comes to cryptocurrencies in 2022 and beyond.

[Image – Photo by Ewan Kennedy on Unsplash]