Govt to bring Cryptocurrency regulation Bill, says Sitharaman

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman has said, a Bill on Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency will be introduced in the Lok Sabha. In a written answer in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, she said, the Bill is expected to be taken up during the current session itself. She said, the question of monitoring or regulating cryptocurrencies would be consequent to the passage of the Bill. The risk of cryptocurrency and it going in the wrong hands is being monitored,she said. In a reply to a question asked by Sushil Kumar Modi, Ms Sitharaman said that there were other dimensions and the bill had to be reworked and now we are trying to work on a new bill," she said today. Citing statements from the RBI, the SEBI and the government, she underlined that investors need to remain cautious. The Finance Minister said, "I don't have the information about how much tax has been collected on cryptocurrency."

In another question related to the Andhra Pradesh, minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai informed the Lok Sabha that the  government on Tuesday said that a large number of provisions of Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation (APR) Act, 2014 have been implemented and the remaining provisions of the APR Act are at various stages of implementation. Replying to supplementaries Rai informed that some of the provisions relating to infrastructure projects and educational institutions have long gestation period for which a ten-year time period has been prescribed in the Act. Rai said, following the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission, the class of special category status ceases to exist. He, however, said, the Central Government had agreed to give a special assistance to Andhra Pradesh to make up for the Additional Central Share the state might have received during 2015-16 to 2019-20, if the funding of centrally sponsored schemes would have been shared at the ratio of 90:10 between the Centre and the State.