The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) concluded on Friday that India had a “high point of technical compliance” with its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing criteria and said the mechanisms put in place in New Delhi for this objective “they give results. ” ”.
The multilateral monetary watchdog released its findings at its plenary meeting in Singapore, following a year-long procedure in which a FATF team visited New Delhi to assess India’s measures on the spot and met with senior officials.
“The intergovernmental organization that sets the foreign criteria for combating money laundering and terrorist financing has discovered red flags in Indian proceedings,” said an official who asked to remain anonymous.
The FATF discussed and followed up on a “mutual evaluation report” from India, which assesses the effectiveness of the country’s measures to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing, as well as its compliance with the recommendations of the control body.
“The plenary concluded that India has achieved a peak of technical compliance with FATF requirements and that its AML/CFT/CPF [Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism/Terrorist Financing] regime performs well, adding in its understanding of the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing, foreign cooperation, access to fundamental information on property, use of monetary intelligence, deprivation of criminals of their assets and financing measures against proliferation,” the watchdog said in a statement. Formation
The FATF, however, said that “improvements are needed in supervision and the implementation of preventive measures in certain non-financial sectors. “
Also read: India informs FATF about measures taken against money laundering and terrorist funds
It also said that India “must address delays in concluding ML and TF processes, and that CFT measures to prevent the non-profit sector from being abused by TF are implemented in accordance with the FT-based approach. ” risk, specifically through raising awareness among NPOs [non-profit organizations] about their TF risks.
The FATF said it would publish India’s report once its quality and consistency review was completed.
As reported by HT, an Indian delegation visited Singapore in April to brief the FATF on measures taken to combat money laundering and terrorist financing over the last decade. The Indian team comprising the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Income Tax Department, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and the Ministries of Finance and External Affairs held consultations face to face. face to face about the evaluation.
New Delhi was last tested in 2010 and is already in the conforming category.
India’s mutual evaluation is scheduled for September 2020 but is delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The officials said the Indian government has briefed the FATF and its peers on changes to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the registration of more than 5,000 money laundering cases in the past 10 years, the arrest of another 755 people, and the seizure. of assets are worth more than ₹1. 21 lakh crore.
A key update since the last review has been the definition of “politically exposed person” under the PMLA, which was through the FATF. Additionally, the Indian government has expanded the scope of the PMLA to include non-governmental organizations and cryptocurrencies, so that illicit monetary transactions through VDAs can be monitored.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has intensified its controls on fintech corporations to make them comply with the provisions of the Anti-Money Laundering Act and check suspicious transactions, officials said.
The government also enacted a new law in 2018 to deter economic offenders from evading Indian legal procedure by staying outside the jurisdiction of local courts. The Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 empowers the government to make non-conviction seizures and confiscations of assets and proceeds of crime in cases involving amounts exceeding Rs 100 million.
The FATF conducts peer reviews of member countries to evaluate the implementation of its recommendations and provides an in-depth description and investigation of the country’s system.
In 2019, the Government of India established a joint working group comprising 22 central investigative, intelligence and regulatory agencies to make presentations, speak and brief FATF experts.
In recent years, the ED has aggressively pursued entrepreneurs, politicians, and companies involved in money laundering and violating regulations set by government and regulatory authorities, even as the provisions of the PMLA have been defined by many political parties, lawyers, and businessmen. as “draconian”.
The courts, however, upheld most of his arrests and court cases that amounted to indictments.
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