New Delhi: The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) has asked directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI), an arm of the central board of excise and customs, to investigate if $505 billion of illicit financial flows indeed moved out of India between 2004 and 2013.

The $505 billion figure was estimated by Global Financial Integrity, a US-based non-profit organization researching illicit financial flows, in its report Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries 2004–2013. The report had flagged trade-based money laundering as a major source of taking black money, or unaccounted wealth, out of the country. SIT now wants this number to be verified.

“The SIT obtained detailed calculations of country-wise illicit financial flows for each of these years from Global Financial Integrity. Thereafter, the details have been sent to DRI on 8 February 2016 and DRI has been asked to verify the extent to which the calculations are correct," the finance ministry said in a statement.

“The SIT has also observed that since reports like those of Global Financial Integrity which calculate illicit financial flows from various countries are widely used in academic circles and inform the debate on this issue, it is very crucial to ascertain the veracity of such reports. Further necessary action shall be taken by SIT after receipt of report from DRI," the statement added.

SIT has repeatedly flagged trade-based money laundering as a major route through which black money is taken out of the country. In its second “action taken report," SIT had recommended that there should be an institutional mechanism that examines mismatch between export/import data with corresponding data of other countries on a regular basis along with a system to check prices of commodities being imported and exported with the prevalent international prices.

The Narendra Modi government had constituted the SIT in 2014 after the apex court’s orders to look at ways to curb black money. Bringing back black money was one of the major electoral promises of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Since taking office in May 2014, the Modi government has introduced a stringent anti-black money law that sought to jail and impose strict penalties on tax evaders.

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