Toby Antony By

KOCHI: Operations of some of the private foreign exchange (Forex) agencies in state are under the surveillance of Enforcement Directorate (ED) as officials suspect these agencies play key role in sending money abroad through hawala channels.

Also, a major concern is that the smugglers, mainly gold and drug dealers, are getting help from these agents in conducting illegal money transactions.

Recently, Customs had arrested a number of carriers arriving with gold from Dubai to Kerala via Nedumbassery airport. The officials have received information that some of the forex agents had helped the racketeers in sending money to Dubai for purchasing gold from there. The same channel is used for sending the profit from the sale of the smuggled gold here.

The ED is now examining the hawala channels through which smugglers send money abroad.

The ED had last month arrested two forex agents having offices in Kochi, Changanassery and Kozhikode for sending more than `100 crore to Uthup Varghese, an accused in the nursing recruitment scam.

According to the officials, there are more than 1,000 licensed forex agents while double the number are operating without licence. “Annual remittances in Kerala is one of the highest in the country. Similarly, crores of rupees are brought to Kerala by way of hawala remittances. But unlike the normal hawala transactions in which money arrives from abroad, smugglers use the channel for sending money abroad. The forex agents who maintain good connection with people working abroad can operate hawala channels easily. Since these agents carry foreign currencies mainly of gulf countries, they can also send small amounts abroad with the help of gulf returnees. The forex agents charge around 10-50 paise for sending 1 dirham to Dubai through hawala channel,” the official said.

For the ED, forex agents who operate without licence are turning out to be a major concern. According to officials, these unlicensed agents carry out clandestine transactions and remain elusive. These agents are mainly used by smugglers for illegal transactions.

Hawala dealings are operated through agents abroad. When money is handed over to the dealer here, his counterpart hands over same amount in foreign currency abroad. Thus, the money remain unaccountable.

In India, a hawala transaction is punishable under the FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act) 2000 and PMLA ( Prevention of Money Laundering Act) 2002. In many terrorism-related cases, hawala money had been used for funding the operations.