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Jaitley Goes Big on Digital India, Comes Down Heavily on Cryptocurrency

Arun Jaitley’s Budget 2018 deemed cryptocurrency transactions as illegal and said the goverment will work towards eliminating them.

Image for representational purposes. (Reuters)
New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said that the government will not consider cryptocurrency as legal tender. Jaitley’s fifth Union Budget is arguably his toughest yet.
He has aimed to address issues of farmers, create jobs and also boost growth. He said that India achieved an average growth of 7.5% growth in the last 3 years. We are third largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity and 7th largest economy in the world in terms of growth.

Here are the key highlights on what the Finance Minister said on Digital India and cryptocurrency:

1. Digital economy: Niti Aayog will establish a national programme to direct efforts in artificial intelligence

2. The government proposes to set up 5 lakh Wi-Fi hot spots.

3. Department of Science will launch national programme for cyber space

4. Allocation for Digital India has been doubled

5. The government does not consider cryotocurrency as legal tenders. The government will work towards elimination of illicit transactions going on through crypto assets.

| Edited by: Ashish Yechury

Source: News18