In wake of the massive bitcoin rally, Income Tax (I-T) Department, in an apparent precursor to a crackdown on bitcoin trading, conducted survey operations on Wednesday at major Bitcoin exchanges across the country on suspicion of alleged tax evasion, official sources said. They said various teams of the sleuths of the department, under the command of the Bengaluru investigation wing, Wednesday visited the premises of nine such exchanges in the country including in Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kochi and Gurugram, since early morning.
Following are the crackdowns on bitcoin trading by Indian regulators
1. Income tax department on Wednesday carries out survey, under section 133A of the Income Tax (I-T) Act, is being conducted for "gathering evidence for establishing the identity of investors and traders, transaction undertaken by them, identity of counterparties, related bank accounts used, among others"
2. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also cautioned users, holders and traders of virtual currencies, including bitcoins. In March, the Union finance ministry had constituted an Inter-Disciplinary Committee to take stock of the present status of VCs both in India and globally and suggest measures for dealing with such currencies.
3. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in the November-end, said that the government's position is clear. "We don't recognise this as legal currency as of now" .
4. Taking cognisance of concerns raised at various fora from time to time on increasing use of virtual currencies (VCs) and the regulatory challenges, the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) constituted a committee with representations from DEA, Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), RBI, Niti Aayog and SBI. The committee has submitted its report and it is being examined.
5. In February this year, RBI had said "Any user, holder, investor or trader dealing with virtual currencies is doing it at their own risk."
