FIU to Scan Real Estate Deals

October 3, 2009	(Be the first to rate this story!)  Loading ...
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Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), India’s anti-money laundering agency, wants to scan real estate deals. It has asked states to submit monthly data on registration of properties, a state government official, who did not wish to be identified, told ET. FIU is a central agency responsible for receiving, processing and analysing information relating to suspect financial transactions.

Often the real estate deals in the country involves unaccounted cash transactions leading to money laundering, the official said. Money laundering involves disguising financial assets in a way that they can be used without detection of the illegal activity that produced them. Through money laundering, the launderer transforms the monetary proceeds derived from illegal activities into funds with an apparently legal source.

At present, all property registrars have to send data to income tax authorities on property transactions above Rs 30 lakh as part of the Annual Information Return. The FIU, now, demands data for all property transactions. The complete data is required for the agency also for co-ordinating efforts of international intelligence in checking money laundering and related crimes. If timely data are available, any intelligence generated by it could be acted upon promptly, the official said.

Since India is on the verge of becoming a member of the elite inter-governmental body `the Financial Action Task Force’, which has been founded by the G-7 group to develop policies to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, it is obliged to keep a tab on any such transactions that could be used as a means to launder money.

The body recommends placing real estate agents and brokers, besides a host of other entities, under reporting obligations. However, India, which recently amended its anti-money laundering law—Prevention of Money Laundering Act—skipped them even as it brought overseas payment gateways such as Visa and Master, money changers and money transfer service providers and casinos under reporting obligation. Banks, stock brokers, foreign institutional investors are among the entities that already submit data to FIU on a regular basis.

News Published Under:   Real Estate Trends |

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