- Tuesday, April 22, 2025
By: Shelbin MS
India is known to be one of the countries to have the highest rate of adoption when it comes to cryptocurrency and its population, and it seems the nation is set to try and take advantage of that as it looks to introduce a new form of taxation.
It has been revealed by the finance secretary, T. V. Somanathan, that buying and selling virtual assets continues to remain permitted due to the activity appearing in a “gray area” of the law, thus not being deemed illegal, however earnings would now be taxed as if they were winnings from gambling. It has been announced that any cryptocurrency transaction in India will be treated in the same way as income earned through gambling, with the same tax rate being applied.
The framework has already been outlined
The framework that will be implemented for cryptocurrency payments and transactions is said to be similar to the one that has already been provided for taxation of the winnings that are obtained from horse racing and betting activities, as well as other speculative transactions.
The government has proposed that a 30% tax rate on the income from transfers of virtual assets including crypto should be implemented, although this is something that is yet to be approved by the Indian cabinet and until this happens, it is unable to be signed into law as it can not go to the lawmakers of the country.
As a result, the government is going to tax any transactions that are tracked on citizens’ accounts, which is why so many residents in the country have perhaps looked at adopting and embracing the many benefits that can be experienced when using virtual assets.
Crypto gambling has boomed in India
Crypto gambling is already a highly popular activity and one that could continue to increase and explode in the future, with the country being tipped to be the biggest blockchain gambling market in the world in the future, especially because of the young population and the favorable conditions that have been presented. According to figures, half of the total population is thought to be under the age of 25, and the majority of them are online and into mobile gaming as there were over 5.6 billion gaming app downloads to have been registered in the last year alone.
Many people in India are already playing at BTC casinos because of the benefits that they have been able to enjoy when they use crypto as a payment method for online wagering activities. This is because they are able to take advantage of benefits including user anonymity, an increase in security and privacy, as well as securer and cheaper transactions.
Going digital in India
Of course, there is also the added element that the country boasts the second-largest population in the world, with over 1 billion citizens currently living in the south Asian nation. Furthermore, it has been reported that over 750 million of those have access to the internet, whilst it is thought that by the time we reach 2040, more than 1.5 billion of the population should be digital, therefore helping to highlight why crypto has become so popular in the country.
Becoming digital is something that might become a lot easier for Indians in the future, despite the fact that the country does suffer from a high level of poverty in certain regions. Technology such as smartphones, tablets, and computers are becoming cheaper to produce for manufacturers, meaning they are able to keep their production costs down, which will then translate into allowing for lower price points to be created. This would then have a knock-on effect that should make it easier for Indians to be able to purchase the devices.
