Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 98
Mains level: Paper 2- Need for All India Legislative Service
Context
The appointment of Dr. P.P.K. Ramacharyulu as the Secretary-General of the Upper House by M. Venkaiah Naidu, Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, on September 1, 2021, was news that drew much attention. Ramacharyulu was the first-ever Rajya Sabha secretariat staff who rose to become the Secretary-General of the Upper House.
Responsibilities and role of Secretaries-General of both the Houses
- Secretaries-General of both the Houses are mandated with many parliamentary and administrative responsibilities.
- Privileges: The Secretary-General also enjoys certain privileges such as freedom from arrest, immunity from criminal proceedings, and any obstruction and breach of their rights would amount to contempt of the House.
Principle of secretariate independent of executive government
- Article 98 of the Constitution provides the scope of separate secretariats for the two Houses of Parliament.
- The principle, hence, laid in the Article is that the secretariats should be independent of the executive government.
Issues with appointing civil servant
- A separate secretariat marks a feature of a functioning parliamentary democracy.
- Against the principle of independence: Serving civil servants or those who are retired come with long-held baggage and the clout of their past career.
- When civil servants are hired to the post of Secretary-General, this not only dishonours the purpose of ensuring the independence of the Secretariat but also leads to a conflict of interests.
- Against the principle of separation of power: It breaches the principle of separation of power.
- The officials mandated with exercising one area of power may not expect to exercise the others.
- Lack of expertise: One of the prerequisites that demand the post of the Secretary-General is unfailing knowledge and vast experience of parliamentary procedures, practices and precedents.
- Most of the civil servants lack precisely this aspect of expertise.
Way forward: All-India service
- There are thousands of legislative bodies in India, ranging from the panchayat, block panchayat, zila parishad, municipal corporations to State legislatures and Union Parliament at the national level.
- Despite these mammoth law-making bodies, they lack their own common public recruiting and training agency at the national level.
- Ensuring competent and robust legislative institutions demands having qualified and well-trained staff in place.
- The growth of modern government and expansion of governmental activities require a matching development and laborious legislative exercise.
- Creating a common all-India service cadre — an Indian Legislative Service — is a must.
- The Rajya Sabha can, under Article 312, pass a resolution to this effect.
- In the United Kingdom, the Clerk of the House of Commons has always been appointed from the legislative staff pool created to serve Parliament.
- It is high time that India adapts and adopts such democratic institutional practices.
Conclusion
A common service can build a combined and experienced legislative staff cadre, enabling them to serve from across local bodies to Union Parliament.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Compulsory licencing
Mains level: Paper 3- TRIPS waiver for COVID-19
Context
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in October 2020, India and South Africa had tabled a proposal seeking a temporary waiver on COVID-19 related products from the TRIPS. Nearly 18 months later, 164 members of the WTO could not find common ground on the “waiver proposal”.
How will the waiver help?
- The application and enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPRs) are affecting the timely provisioning of affordable medical products to patients.
- Therefore, India and South Africa argued that therefore, argued that “rapid scaling up of manufacturing globally” was “an obvious crucial solution to address the timely availability and affordability of medical products to all countries in need”, and for doing so, IPRs must be waived for at least three years.
The EU solution
- The EU had proposed in a submission in June 2021 that “[c]ompulsory licences are a perfectly legitimate tool that governments may wish to use in the context of a pandemic”.
- India and South Africa, the movers of the “waiver proposal”, are among the four countries that found a “compromise outcome”.
- Only vaccines are included: The solution is a severely truncated version of the “waiver proposal” in terms of product coverage, as only vaccines are included.
- Generally, patent laws, including that of India’s, allow for the grant of compulsory licences if patent holders charge high prices on the proprietary medicines in exercise of their monopoly rights.
- Moreover, such licences can usually be granted if efforts in obtaining voluntary licences from the patent holders have failed.
- The EU proposal states there that in case of a medical urgency, as is the case now, this condition will be waived.
- The proposal also provides that WTO members would be able to issue compulsory licences even if they do not currently have the provisions to issue them under their national patent laws.
- Compulsory licences can even be granted using executive orders, emergency decrees, and judicial or administrative orders.
Issues with the EU solution
1] Eligible member criteria
- The waiver solution can be used only by an “eligible member”, defined as a “developing country member” of the WTO that “had exported less than 10 percent of world exports of COVID-19 vaccine doses in 2021”.
- This means that Bangladesh, which is still a least developed country, but has a growing pharmaceutical industry, is also excluded.
- Restricting China: The eligibility condition seems to have been introduced to limit China’s expansion in the global vaccine market.
- No concern for India: At the current juncture, India does not have to be concerned with the export restriction clause, as its share in global exports of vaccines was 2.4% as on January 31.
2] Export restrictions in the form of eligibility criteria
- While introducing the above-mentioned export restriction, the solution proposes to waive the obligation under Article 31(f) of the TRIPS Agreement.
- Article 31(f) provides that the compulsory licences issued by any WTO member must be used “predominantly for the supply of the domestic market”.
- But while they have proposed removal of Article 31(f), solution includes a more stringent export restriction in the form of the eligibility criteria mentioned above.
3] Further conditions
- The proposed condition of listing all patents covered under the compulsory licences is not a requirement under the TRIPS Agreement.
- Similarly, there is no obligation to notify the details of licensee, the quantity and export destination under the TRIPS provisions.
- But the EU proposal text proposes mandatory notification.
4] Transfer of know-how is not ensured
- According to the EU, when compulsory licences are granted, the “patent holder receives adequate remuneration”, but “[t]ransfer of know-how is not ensured”.
- This demerit of compulsory licences would make it difficult to scale up production of COVID-19 vaccines, medicines, and medical devices in the developing world, thus constraining their availability at affordable prices.
Conclusion
It must be said that by accepting the “compromise outcome”, India and South Africa could jeopardise their high moral ground. Consequently, the global community would lose an important opportunity to ensure that vaccines and medicines are accessible to all.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CAROTAR
Mains level: Paper 3- Make in India
Context
It will be a good idea to look at the intent, reality, and other ramifications of India’s trade agreements, especially in regard to goods.
Why PTAs matters
- Amongst the existing Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs), the most commonly used by exporters and importers, are the agreements with the ASEAN region, South Korea, Japan, and South Asian countries.
- It is noteworthy that India has significant trade deficits with three of the aforementioned regions.
- Another factor to note is that three of these regions have significant manufacturing capacity and investment in their own territories.
- Thus, India’s ongoing initiatives in trade agreements must consider whether such deals strengthen imports into India or incentivize investment.
- This is all the more important as the Centre has laid out schemes like Phased Manufacturing Programs (PMPs) and Production Linked Incentives (PLIs) to encourage investment in Make in India.
How existing trade agreements affect Phased Manufacturing Programs(PMP)
- How does it work? Under the PMP, calibrated reductions in customs duty rates on inputs and intermediate goods have been provided along with higher duty rates on finished products.
- However, considering that many of the finished products are covered by zero duty rates under existing trade agreements with some regions or countries, manufacturers with existing facilities in such countries may not have a compelling reason to move manufacturing to India.
- Similar benefits exist under other agreements and may inhibit the uptake of the PMPs by multinational manufacturing entities.
Production Linked Incentives and trade agreements
- Under PLIs, based on a threshold level of capital investment and incremental production, subsidies are to be given to approved applicants.
- Such schemes cover 15 product categories as of now.
- In some cases, the attraction of incentives could score over the benefits of importing goods under low or nil rates of duty under PTAs.
Suggestions:
- The PLIs could become even more attractive if it is combined with certain pre-existing special governmental schemes that reduce costs and conserve cash flow.
- While the application window for most of the PLI schemes has closed, a few may be extended and depending on the success of current schemes, more could follow.
- Improving trade governance: PTAs are governed by written agreements between nation states or groups of nation states and domestic laws of the signatories.
- Contrary to a violation of a multilateral or plurilateral agreement entered into under the aegis of the WTO, enforcement mechanisms external to the parties, do not exist for PTAs.
- The committed benefits could be allowed or disallowed by customs rules (for example the CAROTAR in India) and customs officials, conditional upon certifications and validations.
- Mechanisms exist in the FTAs themselves to solve such matters, but in a situation where entities of different sizes and economic power attempt to resolve such issues, the resolutions may not be acceptable to all parties.
- Better governance mechanisms are needed.
Conclusion
It is expected that a holistic view, keeping in mind the government’s schemes on investment and trade governance, would inform future negotiations as well as a review of existing trade agreements of India.
Source:
https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/make-trade-deals-for-make-in-india/2457320/
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Back2Basics: CAROTAR 2020
- CAROTAR 2020 (“Rules”) aims to add to the existing operational certification procedures which are prescribed under different trade agreements such as Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), Preferential Trade Agreement, Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement and Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.
- The Customs (Administration of Rules of Origin under Trade Agreements) Rules, 2020 (CAROTAR, 2020), was notified on 21st August 2020 by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- ICJ decision on Ukraine crisis and its significance
Context
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ordered Russia to immediately suspend its military operations in Ukraine. In short, to end the war instantly.
Breach of the Genocide Convention
- Ukraine moved the ICJ against Russia accusing it of falsely claiming that Ukrainians are committing genocide in their territory and using this untruthful premise to start an illegal war.
- This, Ukraine believes, breaches its rights under the Genocide Convention — a treaty that is binding to both Russia and Ukraine.
- This decision was rendered by the ICJ in response to Ukraine’s application for indication of provisional measures under Article 41 of the ICJ Statute.
- Provisional measures under the ICJ Statute are the international equivalent of an interim injunction that can be provided by the court to preserve the rights of the parties pending a final decision on the merits of the case.
Three reasons cited by the ICJ
1] ICJ’s jurisdiction in the case
- Since 2014, Russia has been repeatedly accusing Ukraine of committing genocide in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
- Just before the military invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin mentioned ending the genocide in Ukraine as the reason to use force.
- Ukraine vehemently rejects this charge.
- Prima facie, this shows the existence of a “dispute” under Article IX of the Genocide Convention — the compromissory clause that bestows jurisdiction on the ICJ.
- Self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter: Russia contended that its formal basis for use of force against Ukraine was its right to self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter (a patently illegal argument, but this issue is not before the ICJ).
- The court held that it had prima facie jurisdiction in the case because the subject matter fell under the Genocide Convention.
2] Preservation of rights claimed by the parties
- Ukraine argues that it has a right under the Genocide Convention not to be falsely accused of genocide and rely on this wrong pretext to use force against its territorial integrity.
- The ICJ held that the objective of indicating provisional measures is the preservation of the rights claimed by the parties, pending the decision on merits.
- Since the current proceedings were only for provisional measures, the ICJ did not decide definitively whether Ukraine has such a right under the Genocide Convention.
- Nonetheless, the ICJ found Ukraine’s right plausible, which is adequate for the current purposes.
- While the court did not decide on whether Russia has breached the Genocide Convention, as this is a question of merits, it did express doubt over whether a country can unilaterally use force against another country for punishing or preventing an alleged act of genocide.
3] Risk of irreparable harm to Ukraine’s rights
- The ICJ held that if it does not indicate provisional measures, that is, order cessation of military action, there is a real and imminent risk of irreparable harm to Ukraine’s rights.
- This is because of the magnitude of destruction that the ongoing war has caused.
Significance of the order
- ICJ’s decision is binding on Russia and constitutes part of its international legal obligations.
- However, the remedy for not complying with ICJ rulings lies with the UN Security Council, which has Russia as a permanent member.
- But just because authoritarian populist leaders like Vladimir Putin don’t care for international law does not diminish its significance.
Conclusion
The weight of global opinion against Russia on its egregious abuse of international law is mounting with each passing day. Russia can keep ignoring this only at grave peril to itself.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Semiconductor, Rare earth elements
Mains level: Economic impact of Russian invasion
The global supply of semiconductors is now being threatened once again by the Ukraine crisis on account of supply of two key raw materials — neon and palladium — that are at a risk of being constrained.
What are Semiconductors?
- A semiconductor sits between a conductor and an insulator and is commonly used in the development of electronic chips, computing components, and devices.
- It’s generally created using silicon, germanium, and other pure elements.
- Semiconductors are created by adding impurities to the element.
Why are neon and palladium important for chipmaking?
(a) Neon
- Neon gas is used in the photolithography process that is the most common method for fabricating integrated circuits.
- Specifically, the neon gas is used in the laser machines that carve the integrated circuits.
- But for use of neon gas in the semiconductor industry, the gas has to reach 99.99% purity levels — which makes it a rarity.
- More than half of semiconductor-grade neon comes from Ukrainian companies Incas and Cryoin.
(b) Palladium
- It is used for multiple purposes in semiconductor and electronic manufacturing.
- It is used to coat electrodes that help control flow of electricity.
- It is also used in plating of microprocessors and printed circuit boards — which is an essential process of chip making.
- Russia accounts for nearly half the global supplies of palladium and the multiple trade sanctions on Moscow threaten to constrain the availability of the element.
Why was there a shortage in semiconductors?
- The trigger point was the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns across the world that forced chip-making facilities to shut in countries like Japan, South Korea, China and the US.
- A key feature in a chip shortage is that it almost always causes cascading effects, given that the first one creates pent-up demand that becomes the cause for the follow-up famine.
How is the Russia-Ukraine crisis protracting this shortage?
- Palladium and neon are two resources that are key to the production of semiconductor chips.
- Russia supplies over 40 per cent of world’s palladium and Ukraine produces 70 per cent of neon.
How long will the semiconductor shortage last?
- The answer to that question is a function of two variables:
- Existing stockpiles of these raw materials with chip manufacturers
- Time for which the crisis in Ukraine prevails
- If a deal is not brokered in the coming months, expect the chip shortage to get worse and for industries highly dependent on them to be similarly affected.
- This means significant risks are ahead for many automakers, electronic device manufacturers, phone makers, and many other sectors that are increasingly reliant on chips for their products to work.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Election of the President
Mains level: Read the attached story
The presidential polls are expected to be held in July to decide on the successor of President Ram Nath Kovind, who will complete his term on July 24, 2022.
The President of India
- The President of India is recognised as the first citizen of the country and the head of the state.
- The elected President of India is a part of the Union Executive along with several other members of the parliament including the Prime Minister, Attorney-General of India and the Vice – president.
Electing the President
- The provisions of the election of the President are laid down in Article 54 of the Constitution of India.
- The Presidential and Vice-Presidential Election Act 1952 led to the establishment of this Constitutional provision.
Qualifications to become the President of India
The qualification of be the President of India are given below:
- He/ She must be an Indian citizen
- A person must have completed the age of 35.
- A person must be qualified for election as a member of the House of the People.
- Must not hold a government (central or state) office of profit
- A person is eligible for election as President if he/she is holding the office of President or Vice-President.
Actual course of election
- The President of India is elected indirectly by an Electoral College following the system of proportional representation utilizing a single transferable vote system and secret ballots.
- MPs and MLAs vote based on parity and uniformity values.
Electoral College composition-
(1) Legislative Assemblies of the States:
- According to the provision of Article 333, every state’s Legislative Assembly must consist of not less than 60 members but not more than 500 members.
(2) Council of States:
- 12 members are nominated by the President of India based on skills or knowledge in literature, arts, science, and social service to act as the members of the Council of States.
- In total, 238 represent act as representatives from both the States and Union Territories.
(2) House of the People:
- The composition of the House of People consists of 530 members (no exceeding) from the state territorial constituencies.
- They are elected through direct election.
- The President further elects 20 more members (no exceeding) from the Union Territories.
Uniformity in the scale of representation of states
To maintain the proportionality between the values of the votes, the following formula is used:
Value of vote of an MLA= total no. of the population of the particular state/ number of elected MLAs of that state divided by 1000.
Single vote system
- During the presidential election, one voter can cast only one vote.
- While the MLAs vote may vary state to state, the MPs vote always remain constant.
MPs and MLAs vote balance
- The number of the total value of the MPs votes must equal the total value of the MLAs to maintain the State and the Union balance.
Quotas:
- The candidate reaching the winning quota or exceeding it is the winner.
- The formula sued is ‘Winning quota total number of poll/ no.of seats + 1’.
Voters’ preference:
- During the presidential election, the voter casts his vote in favor of his first preferred candidate.
- However, in case the first preference candidate does not touch the winning quota, the vote automatically goes to the second preference.
- The first preferred candidate with the lowest vote is eliminated and the votes in his/her favor are transferred to the remaining candidates.
Why need Proportional representation?
- The President of India is elected through proportional representation using the means of the single transferable vote (Article 55(3)).
- It allows the independent candidates and minority parties to have the chance of representation.
- It allows the practice of coalition with many voters under one government.
- This system ensures that candidates who are elected don’t represent the majority of the electorate’s opinion.
Why is President indirectly elected?
If Presidents were to be elected directly, it would become very complicated.
- It would, in fact, be a disaster because the public doesn’t have the absolute clarity of how the president-ship runs or if the candidate fits the profile of a president.
- Another reason why the direct election system isn’t favorable is that the candidate running for the president’s profile will have to campaign around the country with the aid of a political party.
- And, this will result in a massive political instability.
- Moreover, it would be difficult and impossible for the government to hand out election machinery (given the vast population of India).
- This will cost the government financially, and may end up affecting the economy as well.
- The indirect election system is a respectable system for the First Man of India (rightly deserving).
- The system/method of indirect electing of the president also allows the states to maintain neutrality and minimize hostility.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: National Land Monetisation Corporation (NLMC)
Mains level: Asset Monetization
The Union Cabinet has approved the creation of the National Land Monetisation Corporation (NLMC), the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) announced in the Union Budget 2021-22 to carry out monetisation of government and surplus land holdings of public sector undertakings (PSU).
What is the NLMC?
- The NLMC will be a firm, fully owned by the government, to carry out the monetisation of government and public sector assets in the form of surplus, unused or underused land assets.
- It will fall under the administrative jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance and will be set up with an initial authorised share capital of ₹5,000 crore and a paid-up capital of ₹150 crore.
- Apart from monetising underutilised or unused land parcels of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs), the Corporation will also facilitate the monetisation of assets belonging to PSUs that have ceased operations or are in line for a strategic disinvestment.
- The surplus land and building assets of such enterprises are expected to be transferred to the NLMC, which will then hold, manage and monetise them.
What will it do?
- The setting of the NLMC will speed up the closure process of the CPSEs and smoothen the strategic disinvestment process.
- It will also enable productive utilisation of these under-utilised assets by setting in motion private sector investments.
- It will boost new economic activities such as industrialisation, boosting the local economy by generating employment and generating financial resources for potential economic and social infrastructure.
- Besides managing and monetising, the NLMC will act as an advisory body and support other government entities and CPSEs in identifying their surplus non-core assets.
- It will help monetising them in an efficient and professional manner, maximising the scope of value realisation.
What does monetization mean?
- When the government monetises its assets, it essentially means that it is transferring the revenue rights of the asset (could be idle land, infrastructure, PSU) to a private player for a specified period of time.
- In such a transaction, the government gets in return an upfront payment from the private entity, regular share of the revenue generated from the asset, a promise of steady investment into the asset, and the title rights to the monetised asset.
- There are multiple ways to monetise government assets; in the case of land monetisation of certain spaces like offices, it can be done through a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT).
What are REITs?
Ans: REITs a company that owns and operates a land asset and sometimes, funds income-producing real estate. Assets of the government can also be monetised through the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) model.
Why need monetization?
- There are different reasons why the government monetises its assets.
- One of them is to create new sources of revenue.
- The economy has already been hit due to the coronavirus pandemic and revenues are essential to fulfil the Modi government’s target of achieving a $5 trillion economy.
- Monetisation is also done to unlock the potential of unused or underused assets by involving institutional investors or private players.
- Thirdly, it is also done to generate resources or capital for future asset creation, such as using the money generated from monetisation to create new infrastructure projects.
How will the NLMC function?
- The firm will hire professionals from the private sector with a merit based approach, similar to other specialised government companies like the National investment and infrastructure Fund (NIIF) and Invest India.
- This is because asset monetisation of real estate requires expertise in valuation of property, market research, investment banking, land management, legal diligence and other related skill sets.
- The NLMC will undertake monetisation as an agency function and is expected to act as a directory of best practices in land monetisation.
How much land is currently available for monetisation?
- According to the Economic Survey 2021-2022, as of now, CPSEs have put nearly 3,400 acres of land on the table for potential monetisation.
- They have referred this land to the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM).
- As per the survey, monetisation of non-core assets of PSUs such as MTNL, BSNL, BPCL, B&R, BEML, HMT Ltd, Instrumentation Ltd etc are at different stages.
What are the possible challenges for NLMC?
(a) Volatile market situation
- The performance and productivity of the NLMC will also depend on the government’s performance on its disinvestment targets.
- In FY 2021-22, the government has hardly been able to raise expected amounts through various forms of disinvestment.
- For example, the Life Insurance Corporation IPO, which was supposed to raise ₹60,000 crore is now shrouded in uncertainty owing to the Russia-Ukraine crisis making stock markets volatile.
- If the IPO does not hit the markets by the end of March, the government would be missing its disinvestment targets by a wide margin.
(b) Issues with transfer of rights
- The process of asset monetisation does not end when the government transfers revenue rights to private players.
- Identifying profitable revenue streams for the monetised land assets, ensuring adequate investment by the private player and setting up a dispute-resolution mechanism are also important tasks.
(c) Unattractiveness of PPP Model
- Posing as another potential challenge would be the use of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) as a monetisation model.
- For instance, the results of the Centre’s PPP initiative launched in 2020 for the Railways were not encouraging.
- It had invited private parties to run 150 trains of the Indian Railways but when bids were thrown open, nine clusters of trains saw no bidders.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Taxing of Crypto assets
Mains level: Cryptocurrencies regulation in India
The government has clarified that investors won’t be allowed to offset losses in one crypto asset against gains in another, and that crypto mining infrastructure costs will not be included in the cost of acquisition to be claimed as a deduction.
How are crypto investments taxed?
- The Union Budget 2022-23 in February proposed that gains from virtual digital assets or crypto assets would be taxed at 30% irrespective of the individual’s income tax slab.
- In addition, a 1% tax deducted at source or TDS was introduced on the transfer of such assets.
- The government did not say if crypto assets are to be treated as currency, commodity, or security, and a clarification is expected in due course via separate legislation.
- Gifting of crypto assets to non-relatives is also taxed in the hands of the recipient if the value exceeds ₹50,000 in a year.
How does crypto tax differ from others?
- If listed shares are sold within 12 months of purchase, short-term capital gains (STCG) tax is applied on the gains, while beyond one year, long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax is levied.
- STCG is levied at 15.6%, including cess, while LTCG for gains over ₹1 lakh is 10.4%, including cess.
- There is no provision of long-term or short-term crypto assets, while gains are taxed at a flat rate of 30%.
- Investors in equities can offset the loss in one stock against another, while they can carry forward both short-term and long-term loss for eight assessment years.
- This has not been allowed in crypto.
How will crypto tax impact investors?
- In a fiscal year, if an investor had made gains in bitcoin and losses in ether, he or she will have to pay tax at 30% on gains in bitcoin.
- Further, the absence of loss set-off provision would cause a double whammy —paying taxes on gains and no offset of losses.
- Tax experts believe that in certain cases, the effective rate of taxation can even cross 100% on crypto investments.
How will miners be affected?
- The government has clarified that mining infrastructure will also not be eligible to be deducted as the cost of acquisition.
- So far, it was understood by some that crypto generated during the ‘mining’ process is taxable only on the profits, after accounting for mining expenses such as electricity.
- But with the latest explanation, a 30% tax plus cess and surcharges will be levied on such transactions.
- Experts believe that crypto mining operations would become non-profitable under the current announcement.
Will crypto tax trigger an investor exodus?
- The crypto industry has been unequivocal in criticizing the tax proposals.
- Thanks to the tearing rally in crypto assets over the past two years, it is estimated by some that more than 20 million Indian investors have poured more than ₹1 trillion into cryptos.
- However, the industry leaders fear that the lack of provision to offset losses will drive away users from KYC-compliant exchanges and platforms to the underground peer-to-peer grey market, which would defeat the purpose of regulation.
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