Indian CBDC may allow citizens to delete transaction history: Report

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is supporting legislation to provide anonymity to CBDC users. 

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is the central bank of the country. At present time, RBI is running retail and wholesale CBDC pilots, in collaboration with 13 leading banks in the country. The latest data revealed that more than 100,000 people are testing CBDC. 

Reportedly, The RBI is supporting legislation, which aims to provide the ability to the retail CBDC users in the country to delete their transaction history from the CBDC ledger. 

So here, the central bank itself is happy to provide the ability for the citizens to use CBDC with full anonymity, more similar to the cash form of money transactions.

If the legislation will secure final approval in the Indian parliament House then surely it will help to push the CBDC adoption at a very big scale in the country. 

India, Crypto, & confusion

Over the last few years, Indian lawmakers showed a complicated stance over the crypto sector regulation in the country. In Q1 2022, The Indian finance ministry imposed a 30% tax & 1% TDS on crypto transactions, to track the crypto transactions activity.

To this date, no Indian government agency is open to talking about the clear answer over crypto regulation or ban. 

 Under the G-20 presidency, the Indian finance ministry took crypto on the discussion table with the government agencies of other countries. In Feb 2023, Indian finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman many times said that crypto can’t be regulated by a single country and there is a need to develop a global regulation system in collaboration with all the countries together. She also said that crypto is backed mainly by technology and the decentralised nature of cryptocurrencies can’t be controlled or tracked by a single country.

Read also: IMF study notes CBDC design may impact the Islamic banking system