The Indian government answered some questions regarding the taxation of cryptocurrency exchanges Monday in Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament.
Parliament member S. Ramalingam asked the finance minister “whether it is true that some cryptocurrency exchanges were involved in evasion of goods and services tax (GST) and it was also detected that other cryptocurrency exchanges and major investors in digital currencies are under investigation by the government.”
In addition, the parliament member asked the finance minister about “the action taken or proposed to be taken by the government against those cryptocurrency exchanges that were detected in GST evasion.”
The minister of state in the ministry of finance, Pankaj Chaudhary, replied:
Few cases of evasion of goods and services tax (GST) by cryptocurrency exchanges have been detected by Central GST formations.
He revealed that 11 cryptocurrency exchanges were investigated and tax evasion in the amount of 81.54 crore rupees were detected. The tax authority has recovered 95.86 crore rupees, including interest and penalty.
The minister of state provided a list of the 11 exchanges investigated: Coindcx, Buyucoin, Coinswitch Kuber, Unocoin, Flitpay, Zeb IT Services (Zebpay), Secure Bitcoin Traders, Giottus Technologies, Awlencan Innovations India, Wazirx, and Discidium Internet Labs. The exchanges with the most evasion detected were Wazirx, Coindcx, and Coinswitch Kuber, according to the list.
The list of crypto exchanges investigated for tax evasion. Source: Minister Pankaj Chaudhary.
Lok Sabha member Ramalingam also asked the finance minister “whether the government has any data regarding the number of cryptocurrency exchanges that are presently involved in cryptocurrency exchange business in the country.”
Minister Chaudhary replied:
The government does not collect any data on cryptocurrency exchanges.
Meanwhile, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has proposed taxing crypto income at 30% and imposing a 1% tax deducted at source (TDS) on every crypto transaction. A parliament member recently urged the government to reconsider imposing the 1% TDS, stressing that it will kill the crypto asset class.