New Delhi:
Government has bolstered the capabilities of the elite Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), which can now dish out volumes of data on suspicious transactions in 72-hours flat and gain access to secret database of offenders maintained by various law enforcement agencies in the country.
Earlier, when an agency wanted to get any information on financial transactions and other similar details on entities on its scanner the time taken used to be between a fortnight to 20 days.
The elite financial snoop wing under the Union Finance Ministry has switched to full electronic mode for exchange of data, from the earlier existing paper-based pattern, with all probe and enforcement agencies of the country like the Income Tax department, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED), Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and Intelligence Bureau among others, beginning November 1.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money had also favoured and recommended to the government in its first report that FIU's capabilities should be enhanced so that it can timely and pro-actively help probe agencies.
The FIU is the national agency mandated to collect, analyse and disseminate Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs), Cash Transaction Reports and Counterfeit Currency Reports to various investigative agencies of the country after receiving it from banks and other financial intermediaries under a stipulated mechanism.
The agency is also empowered to act and take penal action against defaulting agencies under select provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Official sources said that under the new and enhanced mechanism the FIU, through its special electronic platform called FinNex (financial network), has upgraded its systems so that it can inform a requesting agency like ED or I-T department within 15 minutes of getting an email if it has any information on such an individual or entity under the scanner of these agencies.
In case, the agency has any data on such a flagged case, it will be able to send all information in 72 hours time via the secure electronic communication link to the requesting agency, except in cases of extreme complexity.
Officials, quoting a recent meeting of all agencies held in this regard, told PTI that this new method will not only ensure fast liaison and cooperation between probe agencies in tackling cases of black money, terrorist financing, hawala and money laundering but will also ensure "secure and reliable" communication between them as it pertains exchange of sensitive data.
"Getting quick data in high-value and sensitive probe cases is as important as ensuring security of such data.With FIU graduating to full electronic mode, all the persisting issues are expected to get resolved on this front," a senior official said quoting decisions taken in the recent meeting.
Earlier, when an agency wanted to get any information on financial transactions and other similar details on entities on its scanner the time taken used to be between a fortnight to 20 days.
The central probe agencies have also decided to open up their respective databases of offenders to the FIU which would glean into it and prepare required dossiers for multiple agencies working on a common or big black money case.
"A watch list will be created by the FIU and as soon as it is detected that an offenders illegal activities should be made known to more than one probe agency, a dossier will automatically be shared with them," they said.
Protocols have also been put in the new system that the investigating officer would be duly informed by SMS and email about the dispatch status of the case requested by the FIU.
As per latest data, government had detected over Rs 7,800 crore of illegal monies within the country and abroad during 2013-14 as the FIU reported an all-time high cases of suspicious transactions in the country's economic channels.
The huge amount of black money could be detected during 2013-14 as the FIU had witnessed an about 100 per cent jump in receiving the STRs at 61,953 dossiers as compared to a mere 31,731 STRs received by it during 2012-13.
The agency also received a total of 87,79,082 Cash Transaction Reports (CTRs), 3,01,804 Counterfeit Currency Reports (CCRs) and 80,616 Non-Profit Organisation Transaction Reports (NTRs), the latest report had said.
STR is defined as a transaction which gives rise to a reasonable suspicion that it may involve proceeds of a crime or appears to be made in circumstances of unjustified complexity or gives reasonable grounds to suspect that it may be linked to terrorist activities.
A CTR is fund movement of the value of more than Rs 10 lakh in one tranche or a series of transactions internally connected to each other in either Indian currency or foreign in the country's banking or any other channel.