Bill to Ban Digital Assets as Payment tabled in Russian Parliament

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Key Takeaways

  • Under the new bill, โ€œdigital financial activesโ€ (DFA) would be prohibited as payment methods for goods and services.
  • The bill introduces the term โ€˜electronic platform,โ€™ which would be recognized as the subject of the national payment system.

On Tuesday, Anatoly Aksakov, the head of the Financial Markets Committee of the Russian parliamentโ€™s lower chamber โ€” the State Duma โ€” introduced a bill that would prohibit the use of โ€œdigital financial activesโ€ (DFA) as payment methods for the purchase of any good or avail of any service.

โ€œThe ruble is the official monetary unit of the Russian Federation. The aforementioned article sets a prohibition against the introduction of other monetary units or monetary surrogates on the territory of the Russian Federationโ€, the cover note of the bill reads.

The bill takes cues from the already-existing legislation(Law on Digital Financial Assets and Digital Currency), despite it not explicitly prohibiting using DFAs as a payment method. Payments through digital assets arenโ€™t considered legal in Russia. The new bill proposal not only makes the ban official but also mandates DFA exchange managers to withhold any deals implicating crypto usage as a payment mode.

In addition to the payment ban, the bill also introduces the concept of an โ€˜electronic platform.โ€™ The concept loosely defined as a financial platform would be recognized in the possible new law as the subject of the national payment system and obliged to submit to the register of Russiaโ€™s central bank. The bill requires assent from key Government officials to become a law.

The new development comes as state legislators have been negotiating tax code amendments that would make cryptocurrencies a taxable asset and a possible tool for foreign trade in the country. The long-existing tussle between the Central Bank of Russia and the countryโ€™s Ministry of Finance over crypto regulation is only expected to exacerbate with the introduction of the new bill.

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Saniya Raahath
Saniya Raahath

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