Data sharing on economic offences gets wider

New Delhi: The government has allowed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to share information about economic offenders with 15 more agencies, including SFIO, CCI and NIA, a move that will expedite nailing of law-breakers.

The Union Finance Ministry notified changes to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA)-2002, on November 22. Through the notification, the ED, which deals primarily with cases of money laundering and violations of foreign exchange laws, would be able to share data with a total of 25 agencies, including the 10 specified earlier.

These 15 agencies include National Investigation Agency (NIA), Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), State Police Department, regulators under various Acts, Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), Ministry of External Affairs, and Competition Commission of India (CCI). National Intelligence Grid, Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), Defence Intelligence Agency, National Technical Research Organisation, Military Intelligence, inquiry authority under Central Civil Services Rules and Wildlife Crime Control Bureau too have been added to the list of agencies for data sharing.