NEW DELHI: The special investigation team (SIT) on black money has written to the Reserve Bank of India asking the Central bank to share information on foreign exchange transactions and create a mechanism to track illicit flow of funds with the enforcement directorate, directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) and CBDT.
In a letter to RBI governor on August 11, SIT headed by Justice M B Shah (retired) underlined the need for creating a data warehouse from where various agencies can gather relevant information for taking early action.
RBI maintains an internal database for foreign exchange transactions both inward and outward remittances. However, the SIT has said that the data available with RBI could be ‘cross checked with other information available with enforcement authorities and illicit financial flows could be curbed.’
The SIT pointed that the data provided to them “clearly showed that there are gaps in monitoring trade flows which are used by unscrupulous elements to take out precious capital outside the country, this damaging the fabric of Indian economy.”
The SIT feels that the data can be shared only by having one agency such as Central Economic Intelligence Bureau or any other agency, as a data warehouse. The finance ministry said, “This is so, since the data available with one agency can be relevant to action expected to be taken by other law enforcement agency.”
RBI maintains export realisation data in its EDPMS database. SIT has asked RBI to impress upon the banks to inform regarding realisation of export proceeds on the EDPMS.
In the wake of the Bank of Baroda scam, the SIT had asked RBI to institutionalise a mechanism for cross checking of advance remittances against ‘Bill of Entry’ irrespective of value of advance remittances sent.