India’s Standing Committee on Finance convened at Parliament House Annexe in New Delhi on May 20 to hear oral evidence from representatives of ZebPay, Binance, and WazirX on the subject of virtual digital assets and the way forward.
The hearing marks one of the most formal engagements between India’s legislative apparatus and the global crypto industry to date, coming after years of regulatory ambiguity that drove significant trading volume to offshore platforms.
The Tax That Drove Volume Offshore
India introduced a 30% flat tax on crypto gains with no loss offsetting provision in 2022, alongside a 1% TDS on every transaction. The measures did not suppress adoption. They redirected it. Exchanges outside Indian jurisdiction absorbed the volume, removing it from Indian tax collection and Indian consumer protection frameworks simultaneously.
The Lok Sabha session represents a recognition that discouragement has not worked and that structured engagement is the more productive path.
Exclusive: Pi42 CEO Speaks to Coinpedia
Avinash Shekhar, Co-Founder and CEO of Pi42, spoke to Coinpedia about the significance of Wednesday’s parliamentary session.
“India bringing major global and domestic crypto platforms into formal policy discussions is a significant step for the industry’s long-term evolution,” Shekhar said. “It signals that the conversation is gradually moving from uncertainty toward structured engagement between policymakers and the ecosystem.”
Shekhar said the scale of India’s existing user base makes regulatory clarity increasingly urgent. “India already represents one of the world’s largest digital asset user bases, and with participation continuing to grow, regulatory clarity becomes increasingly important for investor protection, market transparency, and responsible innovation.”
He described the practical value of direct dialogue between policymakers and practitioners. “These discussions can help policymakers better understand how areas such as compliance, custody, taxation, cybersecurity, and cross-border transactions function in practice. They also create an opportunity to build frameworks that are aligned with India’s financial priorities while learning from global regulatory models.”
On the stakes of getting the framework right, Shekhar was direct. “A balanced and well-defined framework would strengthen confidence among users, institutions, and businesses, while encouraging more innovation and liquidity to remain within regulated Indian platforms rather than moving offshore.”
The Compliance Infrastructure Challenge
The regulatory conversation in India extends beyond crypto alone. Raghuveer Kancherla, Co-Founder at compliance infrastructure company Sprinto, told Coinpedia that the broader fintech regulatory environment compounds the challenge for companies operating across multiple verticals simultaneously.
“India’s fintech regulatory environment is both complex and fast-moving,” Kancherla said. “RBI, SEBI, DPDP, and emerging crypto frameworks mean the rules governing these businesses are changing in real time. For companies operating across payments, digital assets, and lending, these are multiple compliance challenges compounding simultaneously.”
He described the operational burden this creates for growing companies. “Every new framework adds surface area. Every audit cycle creates drag. Teams trying to manage this manually are spending more time on compliance operations than on the business itself.”
Kancherla argued that the pace of regulatory change has outgrown manual compliance management entirely. “Manual GRC was not built for this pace. Autonomous GRC is the only way to keep up by monitoring continuously, adapting in real time, and treating compliance as infrastructure rather than overhead.”
