India keeps strict crypto tax rules unchanged in 2023. In fact, the country’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made no mention of cryptocurrencies, virtual digital assets or central bank digital currencies (i.e. digital rupees) when unveiling the national budget, which revealed the latest tax rules.
Last year, India implemented strict taxes on crypto trading: a 30% tax on profits and a 1% tax at source (TDS) on all transactions. Cryptocurrency trading volumes plummeted almost immediately after that. In the nine months after the announcement, Indian investors shifted more than $3.8 billion in trading volume from their home country to foreign cryptocurrency exchanges, and interest in cryptocurrencies plummeted.
As previously reported, several people in the crypto regulatory space have publicly stated that they want tax cuts, but privately believe this is unlikely. The main demand from the industry and recommendations from policy think tanks is to reduce TDS to 0.01%, or at least to 0.1%. (CoinDesk)