- India‘s Finance Minister left the country’s punitive crypto tax regime, including a 30% flat tax and 1% TDS, unchanged in the recent Union Budget presentation.
- The status quo dashes industry hopes for relief and maintains restrictions that have driven an estimated $6.1 billion in trading volume to offshore platforms.
- While tax rates remain, the budget reduced the maximum imprisonment for TDS defaults from seven to two years and introduced new daily monetary penalties for reporting non-compliance.
- Experts state the government is focusing on enforcement and coordinating a global regulatory framework before revising tax rules.
India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her ninth consecutive Union Budget on Sunday, leaving the country’s harsh cryptocurrency tax regime untouched. Consequently, the punitive 30% flat tax on income and the 1% TDS on every transaction will continue to stifle domestic trading.
This decision dashes industry hopes for relief from a framework introduced in 2022. The policy has driven nearly three-quarters of India’s $6.1 billion crypto trading volume offshore, according to reports.
The unchanged rules prohibit investors from offsetting losses against other income. Meanwhile, the 1% TDS makes high-frequency and thin-margin trading commercially unviable on local exchanges.
Pranav Agarwal, an independent director at the listed Bitcoin treasury company Jetking Infotrain India, told Decrypt the stance “signals that they are still choosing to wait and watch before they decide on next steps.” However, Budget 2026 did ease one enforcement provision for non-compliant traders.
Criminal liability for TDS defaults was reduced from a maximum of seven years’ imprisonment to two years. Courts are now allowed to convert these violations into monetary penalties.
Meanwhile, the budget introduced new penalties for failing to report crypto transactions. Entities providing inaccurate information face a penalty of $546, effective April 1.
CA Sonu Jain of 9Point Capital noted the government’s focus is “not on revisiting crypto tax policy but on strengthening enforcement, reporting, and compliance.” He added that India is coordinating policy discussions at the G20 level for a comprehensive regulatory framework.
Sudhakar Lakshmanaraja of the advocacy body Digital South Trust said the taxation was introduced as an interim step. He stated that India’s approach “reflects policy maturity” by prioritizing regulatory certainty.
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