Although India’s government panel has reportedly reached the final stages of its report on how crypto should be regulated in the country, it appears uncertain if the release of the report could possibly be slowed – again.

At the beginning of the month, The Crypto Sight had reported on the latest status of the report by an inter-ministerial committee (IMC) headed by India’s Secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs, Subhash Chandra Garg who is tasked with developing India’s crypto regulatory framework. Garg was previously reported as saying that the IMC report would be ready in July last year, but has since been delayed since.  

Last week (Feb 4), Quartz India reported that the IMC is currently believed to be “in a tangle” over how crypto could impact the Rupee in the country, or destabilize it, should crypto be allowed for making payments.

“If Bitcoin and other digital currencies are going to be allowed to be used for payments then whether it will end up destabilizing the fiat currency is a major concern” for the IMC, quoted Quartz from an anonymous source within the crypto community who met the panel. The source added, “The overall impact on the financial ecosystem that it is likely to have is still unclear and it has been a challenge to convince them on this particular point.”

Quartz believes the government’s “fears” could have spiked following the release of a report by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) last March, which warned that crypto could destabilize traditional banks if offered widely to the public. BIS is usually seen as being the central bank of central banks, and India’s Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is a BIS member.

The discussion over crypto’s legality in India started in April 2018, when RBI made it clear that services would no longer be provided to persons or entities associated with crypto. In return, several crypto-related businesses filed a suit against RBI in the country’s Supreme Court, with the legal outcome still unclear.