New Delhi, Nov 23: Government has bolstered the capabilities of the elite Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), which can now dish out volumes of data on suspicious transactions in 72-hours flat and gain access to secret database of offenders maintained by various law enforcement agencies in the country.
Earlier, when an agency wanted to get any information on financial transactions and other similar details on entities on its scanner the time taken used to be between a fortnight to 20 days.
The elite financial snoop wing under the Union Finance Ministry has switched to full electronic mode for exchange of data, from the earlier existing paper-based pattern, with all probe and enforcement agencies of the country like the Income Tax department, CBI, ED, DRI and Intelligence Bureau among others, beginning November 1.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money had also favoured and recommended to the government in its first report that FIU’s capabilities should be enhanced so that it can timely and pro-actively help probe agencies.
The FIU is the national agency mandated to collect, analyse and disseminate Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs), Cash Transaction Reports and Counterfeit Currency Reports to various investigative agencies of the country after receiving it from banks and other financial intermediaries under a stipulated mechanism.
