iNDICA News Bureau-
India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Thursday lauded the work done by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental body established 1989 to fight money laundering, terrorist financing and related threats to the international financial system.
The minister made the remarks at the FATF ministerial meeting in Washington, DC, alongside the 2022 spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, to endorse the Paris-based FATF’s strategic priorities for the years 2022-24.
She extended support to the strategic priorities and reiterated India’s commitment to provide resources and support to the FATF in its endeavor to prevent money laundering, terrorist financing and financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Pakistan has been on the FATF grey list since June 2018 for failing to check money laundering and terror financing. Islamabad was given a plan of action to complete by Oct 2019 but has so far failed to implement it fully.
Nirmala Sitharaman congratulated FATF President Marcus Pleyer for the guidance and leadership provided through the challenging times of pandemic, the finance ministry said in a tweet.
The strategic priorities for the FATF for 2022-24 are: strengthen the FATF global network and FATF systems of mutual evaluation, enhance international beneficial ownership transparency, increase capabilities to more effectively recover criminal assets, leverage digital transformation, and ensure sustainable funding for FATF strategic priorities.
The minister arrived in Washington, DC, Monday on a 10-day visit to the United States, mainly to attend the IMF-World Bank spring meetings. She will also be traveling to California over the weekend where she will attend a community event in the Bay Area Sunday and met faculty and students at the Stanford School of Medicine April 26.
The FATF currently has 39 members, including two regional organizations — the European Commission and Gulf Cooperation Council. India is a member of the FATF consultations and its Asia Pacific Group.
Nirmala Sitharaman earlier also called for an international mechanism to regulate the global trade in cryptocurrencies, questioning the veracity of the purported size of the market and expressing concern over the possibility of its use to launder money and fund terrorism.
“I think the biggest risk for all countries across the board will be on the money-laundering aspect and also on the aspect of currency being used for financing terror,” the minister said at a seminar hosted by the IMF.
She pressed for a common international approach to regulate the sector, saying there must be “a global approach at regulating and also understanding the technology as it keeps evolving, to be on top of things and to have technology-driven solutions to regulate and monitor, not so much to interfere, but to keep an eye on … money laundering”.
She also questioned estimates about the size of the market. “We are not sure about the veracity of the data, which says the volume is this much or that much. Those numbers are questionable,” she said.
India distinguishes between cryptocurrencies and other crypto assets and in February announced a 30 percent tax on income from these transactions, which includes a 1 percent deduction at source.
“We were trying to make sure that we are keeping a trail and also making sure these are going to be eventually compliant with anti-money-laundering rules,” the minister said. “Additionally, we are making sure these kinds of operations don’t end up inadvertently funding any kind of terror activities.”
Nirmala Sitharaman also detailed India’s growing e-economy and the country’s plan to enter the cryptocurrency market with its own digital currency sometime during the year.
