Home ministry asks ED, IT to check terror funding

The Income Tax department and Enforcement Directorate have been asked by the government to pull up their socks and expedite disposal of cases related to terror financing in various parts of the country.

This was decided at a meeting chaired by Union Home Secretary G K Pillai where he asked both the departments to immediately inform the Home Ministry when such cases are traced and take immediate action, official sources said.

The meeting was attended by top officials, including ED Chief Arun Mathur and police chiefs of terrorism-affected states.

During the meeting, the ED and Income Tax department were asked to route their notices through concerned police stations and not through the district magistrates where a delay was inevitable, the sources said.

Officials from terror-affected states expressed their willingness in extending help to both the central agencies which deal with cases related to tax evasion, money laundering and contraventions of foreign exchange laws in the country and abroad.

The home secretary and police chiefs were of the view that a tight vigil needs to be maintained in checking the flow of funds through illegal means into the country, they said.

The government is also putting in place an elite unit in the Home Ministry to combat the menace, which has a bearing on national security, the sources said.

The first ever such cell will function under the Ministry of Home Affairs, but will be headed by an officer of the Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax), they said.

The unit will function as the 'nodal office' between various investigative and enforcement agencies to deal exclusively with cases of terror financing and instances of money laundering for such activities.

According to sources, the cell will have a strength of eight officials initially and will be a part of the internal security-I division of the home ministry.