In 2023, India will continue to apply its rigorous crypto tax regulations. When announcing the country’s budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made no mention of cryptocurrency, virtual digital assets, blockchain, or central bank digital currencies (digital rupee), which illustrates the most recent tax regulations.

The biggest democracy in the world imposed onerous taxes on cryptocurrency transactions last year: a 30% profit tax and a 1% tax deducted at source (TDS) on all transactions. The year turned out to be what the industry had predicted would be a “period of pain,” as termed by Nischal Shetty, the CEO and founder of WazirX.

In the nine months following the announcement, Indians transferred over $3.8 billion in trading volume from domestic to overseas crypto exchanges, and interest in cryptocurrencies fell precipitously. Crypto trading volumes fell almost immediately.

While many closely involved in the regulations had publicly expressed their optimism for a tax cut, they had privately reported it was improbable.

The industry’s top demand and the consensus among policy organizations was to lower the TDS to 0.01%, or at the very least, 0.1%.

According to Rajagopal Menon, Vice President of Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX, “Indian crypto companies on the stairway to heaven” because there have been no changes to the current crypto taxation. “We hope that the government will reconsider its position on crypto taxes.”

Although this was “not good for our country and those building in this sector in India,” added Sumit Gupta, co-founder of Indian crypto exchange CoinDCX, he remained dedicated to cooperating with the government to build policies that are supportive to the sustained development of the ecosystem.”

Moreover, India Today reported that many stakeholders didn’t anticipate any changes to the current crypto tax structure given that crypto hasn’t been successful in gaining the trust of regulatory agencies worldwide. Governments all around the world are now taking measures to protect investors by either outlawing these digital currencies or levying high taxes, as in India, as a result of the numerous scams and frauds that have afflicted crypto around the world.