Amitoj Singh (India): The world’s largest democracy goes to elections next year and by June 2024, based on current state election trends and polls, Narendra Modi will return as India’s Prime Minister for a third term. With it, the same policies represented by his party, the Bharatiya Janta Party, are likely to be retained. That would mean India’s controversial and stiff crypto taxation policy may not see a change in 2024. A think tank study supports reducing the taxes – a 30% tax on crypto profits and a 1% tax deducted at source (TDS) on all transactions. The crypto industry has advocated for changes too. But Modi’s government hasn’t given any indication of wanting to change that policy. As for a crypto or Web3-specific legislative bill, Jayant Sinha, one of India’s senior lawmakers from Modi’s party overseeing the financial evolution of the nation, has already said that won’t happen anytime soon and perhaps not until mid-2025. As a result, in 2024, India’s crypto enthusiasts may not have much hope for a reduction in taxation policies, but they will be looking out for piecemeal measures for the Web3 and blockchain industry to be folded into the nation’s further push toward digitizing its future. Modi’s government has already made encouraging steps for the space while maintaining a separate stiff policy for crypto assets. I’ll be keeping an eye on two separate budget presentations in India’s parliament, one before the election and one after, to see if India’s prioritization of framing a crypto framework for the globe as the president of the Group of 20 (G20) nations in 2023, becomes its own domestic legislative priority. As suggested in 2022, I watched the Modi government’s budget presentations in 2023 and its G20 work closely. I also watched whether the Indian central bank’s hopes to launch a full-scale central bank digital currency (CBDC) would come true. They didn’t. However, wholesale and retail pilots have shown promising results and their progress, including concerns around privacy, maybe the focus of 2024.
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