印度税务部对9家比特币交易所进行了现场调查

本周三，印度所得税部（也被称为IT部）对该国9家比特币交易所进行了现场调查。

政府官员告诉记者，来自税务部门的几组探员在班加罗尔调查机构的指挥下，调查了位于德里、班加罗尔、海德拉巴、高知和古尔冈市的交易场所。

据这位官员表示，本次行动参照《印度所得税法》133A，旨在“收集相关信息，建立投资者和交易者身份档案，记录他们涉及的交易、交易对手身份、相关的银行账户等信息”。

据悉，这些探员拥有丰富的金融数据知识，十分了解交易所运作。报道指出，这是印度政府首次对国内交易所采取的大型行动，未来将会有更多相关活动。

监管框架制定中

从印度媒体的报道可以看出，当局正在制定监管和法律框架——央行和其它政府机构试图通过合作的方式应对他们认为比特币交易带来的挑战。

11月，印度财政部长Arun Jaitley说：

我们正在研究（研讨小组的）建议。政府的立场很清楚，我们目前不会承认它是合法货币。

印财长发表这一观点之前，最高法院给央行和相关的金融部门发布了一份公告，希望他们加快制定比特币监管框架。

当地比特币社区担心未来政府会规定加密货币交易活动是非法的。然而，政府也可能把监管重点放在涉及庞氏骗局的众筹上，因为这类活动近期越来越火了。

近期，印度的比特币交易量大涨，该国交易所Zebpay、Coinsecure、Unocoin和Bitxoxo都表示新增用户数量庞大，交易量也居高不下。很多“一掷千金”的投资者都开始进入比特币市场，这也许就是税务局采取这类行动的原因。

英文：

Investigators from the income tax department of India have conducted onsite searches at the offices of the country’s top nine bitcoin exchanges early on Wednesday morning.

Government officials told the Indian news agency PTI that multiple teams of detectives from the tax department, under the command of the Bengaluru investigation wing, surveyed the trading venues in Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kochi, and Gurugram.

This action was taken under section 133A of the Indian Income Tax Act for “gathering evidence for establishing the identity of investors and traders, transaction undertaken by them, identity of counter-parties, related bank accounts used, among others,” according to the quoted officials.

The teams of detectives are said to be armed with various financial data and inputs about the workings of the exchanges. Reports called this the first big action against the exchanges operating in the country, suggesting that more is to come.

Regulations Are in the Works

Reports from India indicate that the authorities are preparing a regulatory and legal framework to try and deal with what they see as the challenges bitcoin trading poses, led by the country’s central bank in cooperation with other government agencies.

In November India’s finance minister Arun Jaitley said: “Recommendations are being worked at. The government’s position is clear, we don’t recognize this as legal currency as of now.” This came after the Supreme Court of India issued a notice to the nation’s central bank and related financial ministries to hasten their regulatory mechanisms with regard to bitcoin.

It is feared among the local bitcoin community that these upcoming regulations will define trading activities as illicit. However, there are also indications that they might focus instead on 众筹 ponzi schemes as those have been getting more heat lately.

Bitcoin trading soared in India recently with some of the country’s top exchanges Zebpay, Coinsecure, Unocoin, and Bitxoxo reporting a huge influx of new users as well as massive trade volumes. Some of the new interest in bitcoin comes from ‘high net worth’ individuals which might have pushed the tax authorities to send a signal with this latest action.