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New Delhi:
The much-awaited Financial Action Task Force (FATF) mutual analysis of India’s anti-money laundering regime and authorized measures framed to verify monetary crimes, scheduled for this yr, has been postponed until early subsequent yr in view of the coronavirus pandemic, officers stated.
They stated the on-site assessment to be performed by consultants of the worldwide physique was scheduled to start in September-October however the FATF secretariat in Paris has conveyed to India that the assessment is being tentatively pushed to January-February subsequent yr.
The FATF is a worldwide cash laundering and terrorist financing watchdog that units worldwide requirements to stop unlawful actions within the financial and monetary channels of a rustic and its inter-connected linkages the world over.
It conducts “peer reviews of each member on an ongoing basis to assess levels of implementation of the FATF recommendations and provides an in-depth description and analysis of each country’s system for preventing criminal abuse of the financial system.”
The assessment of India’s anti-money laundering and terrorist financing regime was scheduled for this yr as a part of an everyday assessment cycle after 10 years. The final such assessment was finished in June 2010, a senior officer in an anti-money laundering company stated.
The FATF, put up this assessment, had stated in 2013 that “India had made significant progress in addressing deficiencies identified in its mutual evaluation report and (the FATF) decided that the country should be removed from the regular follow-up process.”
India has arrange a joint working group comprising 22 central investigation, intelligence gathering and regulatory businesses to make displays and temporary the FATF consultants, drawn from varied international locations, this time.
Some of the outstanding businesses on this grouping supervised by the Department of Revenue below the finance ministry embrace the CBI, ED, Income Tax Department, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), Customs, market regulator SEBI, banking regulator RBI and insurance coverage regulator IRDAI.
The Union authorities had additionally deputed Rahul Navin, a 1993-batch Indian Revenue Service officer of the Income Tax Department, to work as an officer on particular responsibility (OSD) with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to take these processes ahead.
Mr Navin has authored a ebook, ”Information Exchange and Tax Transparency: Tackling Global Tax Evasion and Avoidance”, and served within the worldwide taxation wing of the tax division and labored intently with the OECD, one other reputed international financial physique.
The ED is the nodal company to undertake investigations below the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) within the nation.
A senior Union finance ministry official stated all preparations to temporary the FATF reviewing group had been nearing completion when the COVID-19 outbreak occurred.
“We have been informed by the FATF that it has postponed the mutual evaluation of many jurisdictions scheduled this year including that of India due to the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions. It is expected that the new dates will be for early next year,” the officer advised PTI.
The FATF too made a public declaration on this context.
“The gravity of the COVID-19 situation globally and the consequent COVID-19 related measures that countries have adopted, such as confinement and travel restrictions, are making it impossible for assessed jurisdictions and assessors alike to conduct on-site visits and in-person meetings. This situation has significantly impacted countries” ability to actively participate in mutual evaluation and related follow-up processes.”
“The FATF Plenary has therefore agreed to temporarily postpone all remaining FATF mutual evaluations and follow-up deadlines,” the FATF stated.
It stated India’s doable on-site interval is “tbc (to be considered)”.
During the go to of FATF evaluators, the finance ministry officer stated, India has ready to current a number of dossiers of the motion undertaken by it below the anti-money laundering legislation, prison tax evasion probes and for strengthening the CFT (combating financing of terrorism) regime by the monetary intelligence unit (FIU) and different businesses.
The enactment of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act in 2018, the anti-black cash Act of 2015, amendments introduced within the PMLA through the years, curbing tax evasion below oblique taxes by bringing within the GST (items and providers tax), new protocols to higher regulate suspect transactions in banks and monetary intermediaries and the 2016 demonetisation of two giant currencies are a part of the Indian presentation, one other officer in a probe company stated.
The excessive variety of home and worldwide attachment of property below the PMLA and cost sheets filed by varied probe businesses below prison sections of the legislation towards monetary crimes and terror funding are additionally a part of India’s presentation to the FATF assessment staff, he stated.
The new compliance regime introduced in by the FIU for banks and different monetary establishments to report suspect money and counterfeit transactions may also be a part of the presentation, he stated.
The assessment takes a couple of yr to complete and if all timelines are adhered to, the FATF will talk about the Indian authorized system towards monetary crimes at its Plenary assembly in February, 2022 and subsequently challenge a press release and proposals concerning the nation, the officer stated.
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