Economics
In News: The Finance Ministry notified changes to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002
Changes to PMLA 2002:
- Allowed Enforcement Directorate (ED) to share incriminating information and material about economic offenders with 15 more agencies.
- These include
- National Investigation Agency (NIA)
- Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO)
- Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT)
- Competition Commission of India (CCI)
- National Intelligence Grid
- Central Vigilance Commission (CVC)
- Wildlife Crime Control Bureau
- MEA, State Police Department, regulators under various Acts, Defence Intelligence Agency, National Technical Research Organisation, Military Intelligence, inquiry authority under Central Civil Services Rules.
- Earlier, the ED was permitted to share data with only 10 agencies, including CBI, RBI, Sebi, IRDAI, Intelligence Bureau, and Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), among others.
- Aim:
- Integrate numerous State and Central government agencies
- Empowering them with verified information related to an outlaw
- Expedite nabbing of law-breakers
- Apprehend social evils and bring them to justice in the court of law
Prevention of Money Laundering Act(PMLA):
- It is a criminal law of the Parliament of India passed by the NDA government in 2002
- PMLA became law and came into force on July 1, 2005.
- It has blanket powers assigned to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under PMLA for seizing, investing, searching and attaching assets.
- Introduced due to India’s commitment at the Vienna Convention to combat money laundering.
Aim:
- Prevention and controlling money laundering
- Confiscation and seizing of property involved in or derived from money laundering.
- Providing punishment to offenders
- Appointment of adjudicating authority and appellate tribunal concerning money laundering matters
- Dealing with every issue related to money laundering
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Source: Indian Express
