RIYADH: A member of India's parliament has urged the government to increase taxes on crypto income from the current proposed rate of 30 percent, stressing that cryptocurrency trading is similar to gambling.
Sushil Kumar Modi also requested that the goods and services tax, known as GST, be charged on the total value of crypto transactions, according to Bitcoin.com.
“I would like to request the finance minister that the 30 percent tax that you have imposed on crypto, please consider in the coming days if this tax can be further increased,” he said.
Modi argued that cryptocurrency is not a commodity, an asset, goods, or a service, asserting that it does not have intrinsic value.
He added that while stocks are backed by companies behind them, “crypto is gambling.”
The parliament member further noted that 18 percent Goods and Services Tax is only levied on crypto service providers, such as exchanges, emphasizing that this needs to be increased.
“Cryptos are similar to lottery, casinos betting, gambling and horse racing. In all these activities, 28 percent tax (GST) is imposed on the total transaction value … So I request to you that the GST council needs to consider imposing GST on the total transaction value of crypto,” Modi said.
“Investors are attracted by extraordinary profits,” Modi stressed, adding that “no one knows what is the value of crypto.”
Daily trading
Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency internationally, traded lower on Wednesday, falling by 2.21 percent to $41,959 at 3:21 p.m. Riyadh time.
Ether, the second most traded cryptocurrency, was priced at $2,945, down by 2.10 percent, according to data from Coindesk.
Other news:
Do Kwon, the co-founder and CEO of Terra blockchain, confirmed that it has purchased more than $1 billion in Bitcoin since the end of January.
It also includes about $135 million in four purchases on Monday, Bloomberg reported.
Earlier this month, Kwon announced that his UST stablecoin would be backed by a reserve of Bitcoin that could eventually reach $10 billion.
Kwon tweeted on March 22 that he had $3 billion in funds ready to make purchases in support of the algorithm’s stablecoin, according to Bloomberg.
“The reason why we are particularly interested in Bitcoin is because we believe that is the strongest digital reserve asset,” Kwon said, in an interview with Bloomberg.
“UST is going to be the first internet native currency that implements the Bitcoin standard as part of its monetary policy.”
