Nirmala Sitharaman Suggests Changes In Customs Act To Deal With Cryptocurrency: Report Sitharaman said that there is a cocktail of developments which encompasses the dark web and artificial intelligence, web3 and Meta, and also urged the officials to sit up and take note of these

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on Tuesday, persuaded the customs officials to prepare strategies to deal with changing technologies and developments like cryptocurrencies, according to an FE report.

"If India's Amrut Kaal is the next 25 years, how is the Customs Act, which has served us very well even during the pandemic, going to be future ready?," the minister said while mentioning the performance of customs officials who worked tirelessly during the pandemic, as quoted in the report.

While addressing an event to mark 60 years of the Customs Act, 1962, Sitharaman said that there is a cocktail of developments which encompasses the dark web and artificial intelligence, web3 and Meta, and also urged the officials to sit up and take note of these.

While mentioning the case on cryptocurrencies, Sitharaman also asked how officers would respond to such an issue. In her words, "You have before yourself enough and more instances of how speedily things are changing. I would ask the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs to be the leaders to show how you will have propositions for the next 25 years and probably give the World Customs Organisation more ideas."

According to the report, the government is also working on a framework to levy goods and services tax on these assets. The finance minister also raised the issue of smuggling of drugs and the need for the use of intelligence. Sitharaman emphasized that, "If gold will hurt the economy, drugs will hurt the generation, then we can't afford it."