India’s tax authority, 11 alleged tax evasion bitcoin and cryptocurrency seized $12.6 million from the stock market.
India Increases Operations on Cryptocurrency Exchanges in Recent Months
The GST Intelligence General Directorate (DGGI), which oversees tax collection in India, seized $11 million in cash in January and fined an additional $145,000.
Indian Finance Minister Pankaj Chaudhary said on Monday that the new figure confiscated is close to 95.86 crore ($12.6 million).
In January, DGGI confirmed that only six crypto exchanges had been foreclosed on, including India’s largest exchanges WazirX, CoinDCX, BuyUCoin and Unocoin.
In January, India’s tax authority launched an investigation on WazirX, CoinSwitch Kuber, CoinDCX, BuyUCoin and Unocoin exchanges after learning of $5.3 million in tax evasion. The tax office said in a statement that the case is part of a private anti-tax evasion initiative.
However, tax evasion is not the only issue in India. The country has recently enacted an extremely strict cryptocurrency tax law. As of April 1, Indian crypto companies will pay a 30% tax on capital gains on cryptocurrency transactions.
As of July 1, Indian citizens who buy and sell cryptocurrencies will face an additional 1% tax in addition to the capital gains tax.