Sub-groups to streamline black money recovery

The committee headed by Chairman Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Prakash Chandra, at its first meeting held, made a preliminary study of the existing rules and regulations under various laws dealing with prevention of generation of black money and its transfer abroad.

The committee looked at specific provisions under various acts like Income Tax Act, Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), normally used to deal with detection of unaccounted money. “It (commitee) decided to set up two internal sub-groups to look at existing provisions dealing with prevention of generation, detection as well as recovery of unaccounted money,” sources said.

The committee, comprising of heads of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Enforcement Directorate, Financial Intelligence Unit and senior officials from Finance ministry, decided that these two sub-groups would make a thorough review of three acts—IT Act, FEMA, PMLA—and come out with “specific” suggestions to further tighten the rules and regulations to detect illicit funds, sources said.

The legal cell of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence will prepare a report on the scope for further tightening of the existing provisions in the IT Act for detection of unaccounted money and the recovery of the same.

Similarly, the Enforcement Directorate will specifically look at existing provisions in the FEMA and PMLA to detect illegal outflow of funds and prepare a report for further tightening of these provisions.