Indian Minister Says 11 Crypto Exchanges For Fined For Tax Evasion

An Indian minister says 11 crypto exchanges got fined for tax evasion between 2021 and 2022 as we can see more in our latest cryptocurrency news today.

The exchanges cited ambiguity around applicable GST slabs that resulted in an underassessment of the taxes. The evasion of Goods and Services Tax by the exchange was figured by the Indian Parliament and the Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary informed that 11 such asset platforms were fined for tax evasion in a period of one year.

The total tax evasion by the companies hit $1.09 million and with the fine, the authorities managed to return $1.2 million according to the Indian Minister from the lower house of the Indian Parliament. The junior finance minister provided the information in a reply to a question while explaining that the government doesn’t collect data about crypto exchanges but the tax evasion was detected by CGST which is a department under the Central Board of Indirect Taxes.

The cases of tax evasion by cryptocurrency exchanges came to light at the beginning of this year. Binance-owned WazirX was the biggest defaulter with $0.53 million. Other exchanges included CoinDCX, Buy Uncoin, UnoCoin, CoinSwitch, Zeb IT Services, Awlencan Innovations, and more. Most of the trading venues paid the taxes and the fines right away but refrained that the default was due to the ambiguity in GST rules that are applicable to the platforms.

During the investigations, the issue of classifying crypto exhcnages among the four GST slabs came up, and now such companies are classified as financial service providers with an 18% tax slab applicable. However, the Indian government levied a 30% tax on profits from crypto and 1% TDS on the transactions via the budget for the next year. The GST authorities plan to put crypto exchanges in the same category as gambling, betting, and similar which attracts a GST slab of 28%.

The authorities introduced taxes on crypto profits and transactions but they didn’t clarify whether or not cryptos and exchange are legal in the country. Right now, the Indian crypto exchanges are registered outside of the country and maintain busienss offices in the country as well. The Indian central bank opposed the legalization of crypto and like them to Ponzi schemes.