India Tightens Crypto Oversight, Maintains Tax Burden on Traders

India’s federal budget seeks to tighten scrutiny of cryptocurrencies while denying any tax respite for trading the volatile asset class.

“It is proposed to add the term ‘virtual digital asset’ to the said definition of undisclosed income of the block period,” according to the budget document for fiscal year starting April presented in parliament Saturday. The budget also retained the 1% tax deducted at source on crypto trades.

“Classifying crypto as ‘undisclosed income’ with retrospective effect raises concerns about scrutiny on past transactions,” Punit Agarwal, founder of crypto tax reporting solution provider KoinX.

The 1% TDS comes on top of ...