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For the first time since its accession to the G-20 Presidency, India has officially released details of work underway on how to regulate cryptography.
The IMF is working on a document in consultation with India that will focus on "monetary policy aspects and the political approach of crypto assets," Seth said, secretary, Economic and Social Affairs Department.
Seth also reported that the IMF had conducted a meeting with representatives from developing economies on the document in January. The details confirmed CoinDesk's earlier reporting around the IMF's role in the G-20's crypto-related discussions.
"There's going to be a 135-minute seminar on crypto assets on the policy response (during a G-20 meeting later this month) and for that again the IMF is preparing the finalized paper that will form the base," he added.
India took over the chairmanship of the Group of 20 – the intergovernmental forum of the 20 largest economies in the world, including the European Union as a whole – on 12 December. 1, giving it the responsibility of shaping the group’s agenda. On the eve of taking over the presidency, India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said regulating crypto assets will be a priority.
Sitharaman reiterated this on Friday, saying, "We are also looking at a global SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) to be available to be agreed upon for regulating crypto assets" for the meeting later this month that will see G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors come together.
"While acknowledging the central bank as the authority for crypto-currency issuance, the remaining assets that are created externally and that use very useful FinTech, even these should be discussed because the regulations cannot be made by a particular country, it should be collective action because technology has no borders,' added Sitharaman.
India's position on whether or not cryptography is legal has been crystal clear since imposing high taxes in 2022, but has not declared cryptography to be legal.
“I don’t wait till regulation comes into place for taxing people who are earning profits,” the Indian Finance Minister said when asked how a nation can tax something that it doesn’t acknowledge is legal.
'the issue of legality will only arise if something is outlawed. Crypto assets are not illegal in this country," Seth explained, becoming the second official to give clarity on the matter.
India's draft bill for crypto regulation has been in cold storage because the government wanted global consensus first.
"We had drafted a piece of legislation that was discussed internally. Subsequently, there was consensus that we need to address this issue globally," said Mr. Seth.
Regarding India's next steps in the development of global crypto policy, the plan is to take the progress of the imf paper from consensus at the g-20 to the crypto assets working group of the financial stability board and then "all countries put together" because crypto is an asset class that can be traded across the board and thus "it requires all countries" to accept the policy, seth said.
UPDATE (Feb. 3, 14:07 UTC): Adds Finance Minister comment.
