Stating that the Centre will clamp down on Ponzi apps to protect investors’ hard-earned money, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said that discussions were on with the Information Technology Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India on the issue.
“There are apps coming out with promises and many of the apps are Ponzi apps. We are working with the RBI and the IT Ministry. We will be clamping down on such apps like never before so that we don’t get that Ponzi app taking away hard-earned money,” she said, during an interaction organised here by the Thinkers Forum. She also said that a strong sense of caution is required before investing and investors should not go towards something based on others’ experience.
In response to a question on whether there was any proposal to regulate social media influencers and financial influencers on digital platforms, the Finance Minister said, “There is no proposal to regulate them at this moment. You do your due diligence.”
Answering a query on cryptocurrency, Ms. Sitharaman said; “Global understanding is required and a global template may have to be created. All of us will have to work together. Otherwise regulating crypto may not be effective. But that does mean we are controlling the technology. It has its goodness, it has potential and has its own strengths. We keep that in mind.”
She said that the Financial Stability Board, set up by the G-20, had agreed to give a report on crypto while the International Monetary Fund has already come up with a paper on crypto. “It was India’s proposal and G-20 has kept it on its agenda. The FSB report and the IMF report are going to be discussed in July again when G-20 Finance Ministers and central bank Governors meet,” she said.
“The very character of crypto being technology-driven requires that all countries are on board. It will be not be effective otherwise. No one country individually in the matter of technology-driven crypto assets can effectively control it,” she added.
The Finance Minister also said that it was due to stability in policy, trust in the government and Indian currency that many countries were willing to trade with India in rupees.
