Press trust of india
New Delhi, Sept 5: The Special Investigation Team on black money has asked Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to develop an institutional mechanism to share data with enforcement agencies to track illic it fund flows out of the country.
The SIT, headed by Justice MB Shah (retd), had, in an August 11 letter to the RBI governor, impressed upon the need to establish an institutional mechanism for sharing of data and stressed on effective sharing of information among various government departments.
“The chairman of the SIT has asked RBI for an institutional mechanism for sharing of data in its various databases with the enforcement authorities,” said a tweet from the finance ministry Monday. It has asked banking regulator RBI to develop an institutional mechanism to track illicit financial flows out of the country.
The Supreme Court-appointed SIT was set up to suggest methods to curb black money in the economy. The SIT feels that the data can be shared only by having one agency such as Central Economic Intelligence Bureau (CEIB) or any other agency as a data warehouse. “From the said data warehouse, various agencies can gather the relevant information for taking early appropriate action,” the SIT said.
It said since the data would be available with one agency, it can be relevant to action expected to be taken by other law enforcement agencies. At present, RBI holds the information with respect to all types of foreign exchange transactions under various categories.
“The SIT feels that for controlling and tracking illicit financial flows out of the country, use of the RBI data by various law enforcement agencies like Enforcement Directorate, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and CBDT is of critical importance,” the finance ministry said further in a statement Monday.
In its letter, the SIT had suggested that RBI give access to data relating to foreign exchange transactions of all authorised dealers with authorities like ED and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence. SIT had said that Foreign Exchange Transactions Electronic Reporting System (FET-ERS), which holds the said data, should capture the PAN number of the importer or exporter and that RBI should take necessary steps to get this done on an “urgent basis”.
As regards exports outstanding data, the SIT said huge amounts were found outstanding beyond a period of one year in violation of FEMA. The SIT had noted that the possibility of the companies concerned having wrongly claimed duty drawback also cannot be ruled out. Further, the possibility of the companies concerned having availed of various export promotion schemes also cannot be ruled out.
“In light of this, the SIT has asked the Enforcement Directorate, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and the ministry of commerce to analyse the data of export outstanding and take necessary action in this regard,” the statement said.