India to engage with G20 countries to build cooperation on policy approach to crypto assets

New Delhi [India], February 13 : India will engage with G20 countries to build international cooperation on policy approach to crypto assets, the Lok Sabha was told today.
Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in a written reply that the government is engaging with G20 countries to build international coordination on policy approach to crypto assets.
The Indian Presidency of G20 provides an opportunity to place different priorities, including priority on crypto assets, on the agenda for international collaboration, he said according to a release issued by Press Information Bureau on Monday.
Crypto Assets are by definition borderless and require international collaboration to prevent regulatory arbitrage. Therefore, any legislation for regulation or for banning can be effective only with significant international collaboration on the evaluation of the risks and benefits and evolution of common taxonomy and standards, the Minister stated.
Earlier, on a query posed over crypto mining in Lok Sabha, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said under India's Presidency, G20 members are working together to bring a collective standard operating procedure on it.
While replying to a query from DMK MP T Sumathy, the Finance Minister said, "At the moment, they (cryptocurrencies) are largely unregulated in India; whether it is mining or the asset or whether it is the transaction, we recognise that it is completely driven by technology and a standalone country's effort to control and regulate is not going to be effective."
After saying that China is tracking down crypto miners, India could be an alternate destination if regulation is certain and infra is provided, the member of Parliament asked how the government was planning to regulate crypto mining in India.
Sitharaman also added, "There is an evolving consensus and that's why we are raising this issue in the G20 and having a detailed discussion over the issue so that a standard operating procedure emerges after the discussions in the G20, and so that there is a coherent, comprehensive and all-country-working-together kind of approach in bringing some regulations, whether it is mining or transacting and all these would have been looked into with comprehension..."
On Saturday, during a joint conference of the finance ministry and the Reserve Bank of India, Union Finance Minister said that crypto is 99 per cent technology. It is "under discussion with G20 nations," if all countries could achieve a standard operating procedure that will be effective while following a regulatory framework, she added.