‘Need for international collaboration on crypto assets regulation’

Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary on Monday underlined the need for international collaboration to prevent regulatory arbitrage with regard to crypto assets. Crypto Assets and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are by definition borderless and require international collaboration to prevent regulatory arbitrage, he said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.
“Therefore, any legislation for regulation or for banning can be effective only with significant international collaboration on the evaluation of the risks and benefits and the evolution of a common taxonomy and standards. There is no available timeline for such collaboration as multiple countries and organisations are involved in the process,” he said. In reply to another question, Chaudhary said the central government’s debt was Rs 58.6 lakh crore (52.2 percent of GDP) and Rs 155.6 lakh crore (57.1 percent of GDP) as of March 31, 2014, and March 31, 2023, respectively. At the end of FY 2019–20, the Central government’s debt was Rs 105.1 lakh crore (52.4 percent of GDP), which increased to Rs 121.9 lakh crore (61.5 percent of GDP) at the end of FY 2020–21, he said. This change in Central Government debt by about 9 percentage points in a single year was mainly on account of the COVID-19 pandemic, which hugely disrupted projections of the government’s public finances. However, he said, the Central Government’s debt has declined to 57.1 percent of GDP at the end of FY 2022–23. It needs to be noted that India’s nominal GDP has increased from Rs 112.34 lakh crore in 2013-14 to Rs 272.41 lakh crore in 2022–23, he said.
The risk profile of the Central Government’s debt stands out as safe and prudent in terms of accepted parameters of an indicator-based approach for debt sustainability, he said, adding that the Government debt is held predominantly in domestic currency.