Parul
There is no plan to introduce a cryptocurrency and currently, it is unregulated in India, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.
“Reserve Bank of India (RBI) does not issue cryptocurrency. Traditional paper currency is legal tender and is issued by RBI in terms of provisions of RBI Act, 1994. A digital version of traditional paper currency is called Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC),” the minister said.
In reply to another question, the minister informed the upper house that the RBI is currently working towards a phased implementation strategy for the introduction of CBDC and examining use cases that could be implemented with little or no disruption.
Introduction of CBDC has the potential to provide significant benefits such as reduced dependency on cash, higher seigniorage due to lower transaction costs, he added.
