India’s Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence (DGGI) has sent a show cause notice to Binance, claiming it owes $86 million (or Rupees 722 crores) in unpaid Goods and Services Tax (GST). The agency stated the exchange collected fees from Indian users and did not pay any taxes between July 2017 and March 2024.

This notice issued by the DGGI marks the first time it has gone after a cryptocurrency exchange. The massive tax bill comes from Binance not registering with the country’s GST framework—a requirement for domestic and international businesses operating in the country.

A Times of India article covering the news included a comment from a source close to the matter, “Binance reportedly earned at least Rs 4,000 crore from transaction fees charged to Indian customers. Detailed investigation revealed that the earnings of these fees were credited to the account of a Binance Group Company — Nest Services Limited — based in Seychelles.”

Binance’s cryptocurrency exchange services fall under Online Information and Database Access or Retrieval Services (OIDAR), a category of services preventing overseas online businesses from operating with an advantage over Indian ones. That means online service providers must follow taxation protocols like any business in the country.

Binance’s regulatory woes in India go beyond this. Earlier this year, it was banned alongside other offshore crypto exchanges for failing to register with the FIU-IND, the country’s financial intelligence agency. It was fined $2.2 million in June for not doing so and potentially violating anti-money laundering (AML) legislation. Soon after settling the issue, Binance was allowed to register with the FIU-IND and restart operations.

The current notice sent by the DGGI is independent of previous regulatory action brought against Binance. The exchange is also undergoing tax violation charges in other geographies like Nigeria.

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