India’s Finance Minister Praises CBDC, RBI to Accelerate the Development

India seems to be getting closer to realizing its plans of having a central bank digital currency aka the “Digital Rupee”. Coming in its support on Tuesday, March 8, India’s Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that there are clear advantages of having a CBDC.

Thus, the Finance Ministry is doing some consultations with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in this matter. During an interview on Tuesday, Sitharaman said:

“We see clear advantages in a central bank driven digital currency, because in this day and age, bulk payments happening between- countries, large transactions between institutions and large transactions between central banks themselves of each country- are all better enabled with digital currency”.

She further added that they are currently working on the CBDC’s design and expect the rollout by the end of this year. The Indian Finance Minister took a similar stand last month during her budget speech. The Digital Rupee will arrive in the market by Fy 22-23.

Still Undecided on the Crypto Sector

Last month, Nirmala Sitharaman announced that India shall be taxing crypto gains at a staggering 30%. Recently, she said that they haven’t quite decided about how to proceed with regulations in the crypto space. The regulators have to take a firm call on whether to regulate or ban the crypto sector. Sitharaman said:

“The consultations are on anybody interested in this domain are welcome to participate, after the consultation process gets duly completed, the Ministry would probably sit and mull over it, which is required because we need the executive to be sure that we are not crossing any legal requirements, post which we will be coming out with what’s our position on it”.

But talking about the future of crypto in India, the FM added: “many Indians have seen a lot of future in it, and therefore I see a possibility for revenue in it”.