New Delhi [India], October 10 : The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has collected more than Rs 700 crore as Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) this financial year after a new TDS regime was brought in for online gaming and trade in cryptocurrency, said the tax body's chairman Nitin Gupta.
In an interview with ANI, Gupta said on Tuesday that more than Rs 600 crore in TDS has been collected during the current financial year from online gaming companies, while about Rs 100 crore worth of such tax has been collected from crypto assets.
In her 2022-23 Budget speech, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed to provide for TDS on payment made in relation to transfer of virtual digital assets at the rate of 1 per cent of "such consideration above a monetary threshold."
She had said there was a "phenomenal increase" in transactions in virtual digital assets. The magnitude and frequency of these transactions have made it imperative to provide for a specific tax regime. Also, she proposed taxing income from the transfer of any virtual digital asset at 30 per cent.
The taxation was brought in even though India's position on crypto has been that any legislation for regulation for banning cryptocurrencies can be effective only after significant international collaboration on the evaluation of the risks and benefits.
Crypto assets are currently unregulated in India. The government does not register crypto exchanges and it maintains crypto assets, by definition, are borderless and require "international collaboration".
Crypto assets have been in existence for more than a decade and have displayed significant volatility. Alongside their volatility, crypto-asset activities, as several experts say, have also grown in complexity for financial sector stability.
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