Budget Shock: Is the 30% Crypto Tax a Real Plan?

Manhar Garegrat, Country Head-India at Liminal Custody, glances at the figures as if they were neighbors in need of a visit. He says India’s crypto policy must mend its posture-toward market structure and sustainability-rather than hobble along with the old friction of taxes. The curiously stubborn friction, he suggests, is driving compliant trading to darker shores, like a misplaced umbrella blowing away in a crowd. He urges Budget 2026 to rethink transaction-level taxes and to entertain a VDA transaction tax model, so that crypto activity remains onshore, transparent, and somehow economically viable-like a lamp that doesn’t flicker every five minutes when you need it most.

Crypto and Bitcoin taxes are in focus today, with expectations of rationalisation and clearer rules rather than any grand expansion of the 30% levy-though the government has not yet signaled formal changes, which is bureaucratic poetry for “we’re thinking about it, perhaps.”