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NEW DELHI, July 24

THE Government on Wednesday re-introduced in the Rajya Sabha a Bill aimed at preventing money laundering, after incorporating virtually all the recommendations of a select committee of the Upper House.

The only recommendation of the committee, which has not been accepted by the Government, is the time limit of 90 days for sanction for prosecuting an officer in cases of malafide searches. This was suggested by the committee in order to prevent endless delays on the part of the Government to launch prosecution against erring officers.

The Bill in its modified form is regarded as a diluted version of the original one. This is because the definition of the offence of money laundering itself has been watered down. The legislation is proposed to be enacted by the Government with a view to prevent money laundering and to provide for confiscation of property derived from or involved in money laundering.

The Bill, which was introduced in the Rajya Sabha by the Finance Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, now proposes to bring co-operative banks, non-banking financial companies, chit funds and housing financial institutions under its ambit. It has already been passed by the Lok Sabha.

These entities have been covered now following the select committee's view that there is every reasonable ground to assume that the NBFCs and chit funds, which are collecting huge amounts of money from the public, could provide a safe haven to the money launderers.

The Bill also makes it mandatory for banking companies, financial institutions and intermediaries to maintain a record of all transactions of a prescribed value and to furnish information whenever sought within a prescribed time. The committee had suggested a time limit of 10 years for maintaining a record of the transactions. Theminimum threshold limit for certain categories of offences under the Indian Penal Code and other legislations has been fixed at Rs 30 lakh in the Bill.

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