Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stressed that global consensus is needed for crypto regulation before India does anything about it, saying on April 23 that a global template may have to be created and everyone has to work together on it or else regulate it. will not be effective.
However, the minister said that does not mean controlling “distributed ledger technology”, which has its goodness and potential.
“The G-20 which India currently holds the presidency of, it was India’s proposal and it has been taken on board, I am happy that the G-20 has kept it on its agenda for this year, the IMF has given a paper on cryptocurrency and the way it can affect macroeconomic stability. The Financial Stability Board (FSB), which was set up by the G-20, has agreed to give a report that will also focus on financial stability,” Sitharaman said.
“Their (FSB) report and the IMF’s report will be discussed in July when finance ministers and central bank governors meet at the G-20, setting out that in September there will be a summit of prime ministers and presidents of G-20 nations that will be held in India,” she said.
The minister was responding to a question on regulation of digital or cryptocurrency while interacting with the ‘Thinkers Forum, Karnataka’ here.
The first G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting under the Indian G20 Presidency was held during 24-25 February in Bengaluru.
“The underlying principle is because the digital currencies are completely digitized and technology-driven, the technology, which is very distributed, and sometimes identity is very difficult to establish, but which has potential, it will therefore just have to be traded with all countries come on board, Sitharaman said.
“No country individually, in a matter of technology-driven, a crypto-asset, can effectively control it, because the technology has no borders, it can only pass through. So the very nature of it being technology-driven requires all countries to be on board, otherwise it won’t be effective,” she said.
Furthermore, noting that the understanding in the G-20, together with the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) and other organizations such as the IMF, the World Bank and so on, is that a global template may need to be created, the minister said, “all of We have to work together on it, otherwise regulation of crypto may not be effective.”
“But that doesn’t mean we control the technology of distributed ledger technology, it has its goodness, potential and its own strengths. We keep that in mind,” she added.
Emphasizing that India is today being watched by the global community for the way it steered its own course through the pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war and its spin-offs, Sitharaman said inflation in India today is largely “imported” because of the price . of fuel and fertiliser.
“So you bring everything in, while your own cause of inflation may be the supply side – that inflation in India we are aware of and all governments are fighting it. But today the pressure on inflation in India is largely due to the imported increases in prices,” she said, adding that amid all this, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ensured that people of India will not suffer.
