NEW DELHI: The slow pace of trial in cases of money laundering and terror financing remains a concern with Financial Action Task Force ( FATF ) scheduled to release its review report on India on Sept 19. After a recent evaluation, the Paris-based intergovernmental body had placed New Delhi in the 'regular evaluation' list. Though ED probes into money laundering and terror financing (ML&TF) & working of its reporting mechanism such as Financial Intelligence Unit and banks on suspicious transactions are appreciated by global anti-money laundering watchdog, but long pending cases in courts have been raised by the FATF as a matter of concern.
Of 11 parameters, FATF has appreciated India's performance on six compliance issues while New Delhi needs to improve on five others. The parameters include scope of criminal offence of ML&TF, confiscation of proceeds of crime, customer due diligence and record-keeping, reporting of suspicious transactions and compliance, measures to be taken with respect to countries that do not or insufficiently comply with FATF recommendations, mutual legal assistance and extradition, transparency of legal system and powers of competent authorities. India was upgraded to a 'regular follow up' category in which only four other G20 countries are placed, including the UK, France, Italy and Russia.
Even the US, Japan and China are in the 'enhanced follow up' list, which mandates reporting every three months. India's latest upgrade will need a review only after.
