Did crypto miss out in the Indian elections?

India elections

India just experienced one of the largest elections the world has witnessed. Being a democracy is a challenge and being able to channelize the hopes and aspirations into manifestos. Ideally these manifestos should be a reflection of what the citizens want from the government.
India is a vast country with a huge population that lives in different states and speaks different languages.
This also means these people have different aspirations and they have different aspirations.
Technically it should also mean that they would want different things from their representatives that get elected to the parliament.

There were many issues being raised

From promises of jobs to freebies, goodies to health insurance there were a plethora of promises that were made by various parties.
What is remarkable in these manifestoes is the absence of crypto taxation or even its mention.
If you look at the numbers, crypto holding and its adoption has been on the rise in India.
Though the numbers and the penetration of crypto has been on the rise there is still not a clear crypto policy in the country.
The government and the central banks often bad mouth crypto
From labelling crypto as dangerous to being a ponzi there have been a lot of things that have been said about crypto.

The crypto taxes are high in India

Despite the lack of clarity in terms of policy the crypto taxes have been high.
The Indian government which has been in office for the last ten years has imposed a 1% TDS or tax deducted at source. This tax translates to 1% tax based on the value of trade to be deducted. This is irrespective of a loss or profit.
Besides this there is a 30% tax on crypto trading that a person converts to fiat or to a stable coin. This amount gets reported to the tax authorities and an Indian taxpayer is liable to pay this tax as part of his annual income tax payment.
The losses are not carried forward.

After the 2022 Budget
The government of India has identified crypto under the category of digital assets and referred to crypto and NFT's as VDA or Virtual Digital assets.
Any Income generated by way of transferring these VDA's be it crypto or NFT's would be taxed at a flat 30%.

The loss incurred in these VDA's cannot be offset against any other income.
The losses that happen due to sale of one VDA cannot of offset by the gains of any other VDA
These laws came into effect from July 1st 2022

At best these laws are quite harsh for the crypto users and have resulted in suppressing the growth of the crypto industry.
Both individuals as well as crypto bodies have been raising concerns as to how it could harm the growth of an industry that has the potential to help boost the national economy and provide jobs to the youths of the country.
Despite these concerns being raised at every possible forum none of the parties has picked up this noise and made lowering of crypto taxation an election issue.
As a result they may have lost an important agenda that can mobilize a large segment of the Indian population in their favour.

The same government is back in office

The general elections of 2024 have seen BJP and its allies collectively coming to power as NDA.
The finance ministry has been given to the same minister and without any support from any of the political parties there is little hope that the crypto taxes would be reduced or the environment to help and grow the blockchain industry would be implemented.

Final thoughts

No matter who won or lost the elections in India. Crypto and its growth has been a casualty that is not being represented at either the think tank level or the government level.
Its voice is simply not there or is being drowned in voices and issues that do not represent the pain of the crypto holders or the industry.

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Posted Using InLeo Alpha