The total number of cases registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) has nearly tripled in the three years (2019-22) of the second term of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government, as compared to its first three years (2014-17) in power.
As per a written reply by Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary in Lok Sabha on Monday, the ED registered 14,143 cases under FEMA and PMLA between 2019-20 and 2021-22, as compared to 4,913 cases in 2014-15 to 2016-17 – an increase of over 187 percent.
Meanwhile, during the financial years between 2012-13 and 2021-22, the central agency filed a total of 3,985 criminal complaints under the PMLA and 24,893 under FEMA.
Here’s the data showing the increase between the two terms.
Number of Money Laundering Cases:
2012-13: 221
2013-14: 209
2014-15: 178
2015-16: 111
2016-17: 200
2017-18: 148
2018-19: 195
2019-20: 562
2020-21: 981
2021-22: 1,180
Number of FEMA Cases:
2012-13: 1,722
2013-14: 1,041
2014-15: 915
2015-16: 1,516
2016-17: 1,993
2017-18: 3,627
2018-19: 2,659
2019-20: 3,360
2020-21: 2,747
2021-22: 5,313
5,400 Cases in 17 Years, Only 23 Persons Convicted
Meanwhile, since the enactment of the PMLA, the ED has filed more than 5,400 money laundering cases and has secured convictions against just 23 persons till now.
Till 31 March 2022, the minister said, the ED recorded 5,422 cases under the PMLA, attached proceeds of crime of Rs. 1,04,702 crore (approximately), and filed prosecution complaints (charge sheets) in 992 cases resulting in the confiscation of Rs 869.31 crore and conviction of 23 accused.
The PMLA, enacted in 2002, was implemented on 1 July 2005.
In the last 10 years, the ED has registered the highest number of money laundering and foreign exchange violation cases during the 2021-22 financial year, at 1,180 and 5,313 complaints respectively.
The FEMA was enacted in 1999 after repealing the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) of 1973.
Till 31 March 2002, Chaudhary said, the agency took up a total of 30,716 cases for investigation under FEMA and issued 8,109 show cause notices (after completion of the investigation), the minister said.
As many as 6,472 show cause notices were adjudicated under the FEMA, thereby imposing a penalty of around Rs 8,130 crore and assets of Rs 7,080 crore (approximately) were seized under FEMA, MoS Chaudhary said.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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