Officials from the Indian crypto industry are invited to meet the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance this Monday, November 15, according to a public notice published on the Lok Sabha website.
The notice published by India’s lower house, states the agenda as: “Hearing of views of Associations/ Industry experts on the subject ‘CryptoFinance: Opportunities and Challenges’.”
The meeting will commence at 3 pm IST Monday in the Parliament House Annexe, New Delhi.
Crypto is a legal grey area in India. The industry thrived in recent months even under regulatory uncertainty. CoinDCX and CoinSwitch Kuber, two domestic exchanges received the latest round of funding at a $1 billion+ valuation.
The chairperson of the standing committee is Jayant Sinha, a member of the ruling BJP and a former Minister of State for Finance and the Minister of State for Civil Aviation. In September, Mr Sinha said the parliamentary panel will consider the proposed legislation on cryptocurrencies with national security in mind.
There are a total of 30 members in the committee, including Sinha, with 20 members of the Lok Sabha, and 10 members of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament.
Harish BV, co-founder and COO of Indian crypto exchange Unocoin, told The Block that members of the Blockchain & Crypto Assets Council (BACC) have been invited and that he will attend the meeting. BACC is co-headed by the founders of CoinSwitch and CoinDCX.
This is for the first time, the industry persons are formally called on to present their views which is seen as a positive step. The industry has been informally meeting NITI Aayog and finance ministry officials.
The central bank governor Shaktikanta Das remains concerned about crypto from a macroeconomic and financial stability perspective. Das, this week commented on the reported number of crypto investors and total investments in India as “exaggerated.”
“Perhaps there is an effort to enrol as many people as possible,” the governor said.
