Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday that these speculations are not healthy at all, asserting that a lot of speculation is taking place on cryptocurrencies. Her comments come against the backdrop of the government preparing to come out with legislation to regulate cryptocurrencies.
The Finance Minister said there was a well-consulted bill that is coming to Parliament after the Cabinet nod. There is a lot of speculation. She said in a reply to a question about a question if she thinks that a lot of unregulated speculation is taking place on criptocurrency, that's not healthy at all.
The Lok Sabha Bulletin-Part II has included the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021, for the introduction in the ongoing Winter Session. The Bulletin said that the bill aims to create a facilitative framework for the creation of the official digital currency to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India RBI.
It allows for certain exceptions to promote the underlying technology of cryptocurrencies in India, and it seeks to prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India. Sitharaman in the Rajya Sabha said earlier this week that the bill takes into account the rapidly changing dimensions of virtual currency space, and includes features of the earlier bill that could not be taken up, which was a statement by Sitharaman in the Rajya Sabha.
She said that the guidelines of Advertising Standards Council of India are being studied and their regulations are being looked into so that we can take a position or a decision on how we are going to handle it and more can be done to create awareness of the cryptocurrencies that could be a high risk area, and more can be done to create awareness. The GDP number this year would be very encouraging, and India would emerge as the fastest-growing large economy in the world, according to Sitharaman at the HT Leadership Summit.
She said there are supply constraints due to the floods in some parts of the country, leading to a price rise of perishable products. She hopes that prices of commodities in short supply will cool down by January.
She said that enough and more imports have been allowed on edible oil, and that should take care of the spike in prices. She said that prices of that would be moderate soon due to a fresh harvest of mustard seeds.
Asked about meeting the disinvestment target of Rs 1.75 lakh crore during the current financial year, she said we are progressing with each of them BPCL strategic sale, LIC IPO The detailing takes a lot of time. She said that Air India handing over to Tata Group would be done by December 31, she added.