NEW DELHI: The proposed 30 per cent taxation on income from cryptocurrencies and other virtual assets will come into effect from April 1, Central Board of Direct Taxes chairman JB Mohapatra told news agency ANI on Thursday.
In addition, the 1 per cent tax deducted at source (TDS) on transactions in such asset classes will be applicable from July 1, Mohapatra said.
India became one of the few countries to impose tax on digital assets like cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) when finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed a 30 per cent tax on transfer of such assets in the Union Budget 2022.
Sitharaman had also proposed TDS on such transactions to bring these assets under the tax net.
Digital currency and assets like NFTs (non-fungible tokens) have gained traction globally over the last couple of years.
Trading in these assets has increased manifold with cryptocurrency exchanges being launched. However, India did not have a clear policy on either regulating or taxing such asset classes until now.
On income tax collections, the CBDT chief said that net collections jumped 48.4 per cent annually to Rs 13.63 lakh crore, which is the best since 2018-19. CBDT's budget estimate was Rs 11.08 lakh crore this year, which was increased in the revised estimate (RE) to Rs 12.50 lakh crore.
"Today's income tax collection of Rs 13.63 lakh crore is expected to rise further till March 30. Our gross & net collections in the last 5 years and in the history of the tax department is optimal. Our gross numbers have crossed Rs 15 lakh, which we could never touch earlier," Mohapatra said.
He highlighted the efforts put by the I-T department on developing technology and induction in the last 4-5 years, reforms introduced by the government and buoyancy of the economy to be the major contributory factors towards record collection of taxes.
Further, the government collected Rs 22,280 crore security transaction tax (STT) in the fiscal year, which is higher than original estimate Rs 12,500 crore, and revised estimate of Rs 20,000 crore.
"The major reason for higher STT collection is the buoyancy in the stock market, with high volume of transactions," he added.
