The government has decided to include clauses of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Act 2010 in the Anti-Terrorism Act to deal with the menace of money laundering and bring the people involved to justice. A high-level meeting on anti-money laundering measures chaired by the Prime Minister on Wednesday was briefed by the Law Minister Dr Farogh Naseem on the proposed amendments in the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010 and Foreign Exchange Regulation Act 1947 for making them more effective to deal with money laundering.
The proposed amendment in the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act 1947 will increase punishment for those who violate FERA laws to five years from three years and after the amendment, crimes related to FERA laws would be non-bailable and trial of all the cases would be required to be completed from six months to one year and punishment of AML crimes will be increased to 10 years and penalty to Rs 5 million subsequent to the proposed amendments to the AML and FERA Acts.
The meeting was also given a briefing on proposed amendments to anti-terrorism laws. The director general Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) briefed the Prime Minister on the progress with regard to progress of FIA against money laundering from November 2018 to February 2019.
The meeting was informed that 131 cases related to FERA and AML were registered by the FIA, and subsequently Rs 423.304 million was confiscated and 198 people were arrested. The meeting was also briefed on action taken on complaints against crypto currency, as well as on information received about suspicious transactions while investigation is under way against Rs 540 million transactions in relevant inquiries.
The Prime Minister was also briefed on Benami accounts as well as cases of properties, established through laundered money, in the UAE. The meeting was informed that strict action by the FIA led to considerable decrease in Hawala and Hundi cases and there was now only a 15 paisa difference in open market and inter-bank dollar rates. The Prime Minister was informed that there was a 12 percent increase in remittances by overseas Pakistanis during July-February 2019.
Chairman Federal Board of Revenue informed the Prime Minister about the actions taken by FBR against money laundering and Pakistanis' properties abroad. The meeting was told that Customs and AML Inland Revenue Intelligence have been made more effective and under currency declaration system, 11334 declarations were made at 24 points, worth $ 171.3 million.
The Prime Minister was informed by the Customs officials that during November 2018 to February 2019, Rs 324 million currency and material were confiscated as opposed to Rs 61 million for the same period of last fiscal year and 335 reports of suspicious transaction were received and in this connection investigations are under way against 510 persons and so far Rs 6,600 million has been recovered.
The Prime minister was also informed that Chief Collectorate has been set up in Quetta while enforcement collectorates have been set up in Peshawar, Karachi and Quetta. Rs 14 billion demand was generated by the FBR with regard to foreign properties and Rs 6 billion has been recovered while from the UAE, Rs 278 million has been recovered in 336 cases.
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