A global task force, which tracks money laundering and terrorist financing across national borders, has advised India’s neighbours including Pakistan to improve legal measures to curb the criminalisation of its financial channels.
India is the latest member of the multi-national Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental organisation founded in 1989 by the G7 (Group of seven industrialised nations) to develop policies to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
“From India’s point of view these recommendations by the powerful world financial body to India’s neighbours is important as it will ensure a better and criminal free financial hub and network around the burgeoning economic power like us,” a senior Revenue department official said.
“In June 2010, Pakistan made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and Asia Pacific Group (APG) to address its strategic Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combating Financing of Terror (CFT) deficiencies.
“Pakistan has demonstrated progress in improving its AML and CFT regime, including enacting a permanent AML law.
However, the FATF has determined that certain strategic AML and CFT deficiencies remain,” the FATF said, in its recommendations to Pakistan.
Pakistan will work on implementing its action plan to address these deficiencies, including demonstrating adequate criminalisation of money laundering and terrorist financing, demonstrating adequate procedures to identify, freeze and confiscate terrorist assets, ensuring a fully operational and effectively functioning Financial Intelligence Unit.
The other measures that Pakistan need to work on, according to FATF, include “demonstrating effective regulation of money service providers, including an appropriate sanctions regime, and increasing the range of Money Laundering and Financing of Terror preventive measures for these services and improving and implementing effective controls for cross-border cash transactions.”
India had successfully demonstrated these steps to combat criminalisation of money in its financial channels during FATF’s on-site visit to the country last year, following which India became the 34th member of the body last month in Amsterdam.
The FATF has recommended similar measures for Indian neighbours like Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Nepal.
“The FATF encourages Pakistan to address its remaining deficiencies and continue the process of implementing its action plan,” the body recommended.
The other prominent countries who have been suggested to work on their action plans include Indonesia, Thailand, Kenya, Morocco, Syria, Ecuador, Greece, Bolivia, Ethiopia and Turkey among others.
