Indian efforts to trace Hawala operators involved in money laundering and terror financing are facing hurdles due to non-cooperation of many countries where these racketeers operate, according to a global task force.
The unhelpful countries include tax havens like Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Bahamas and Switzerland. To get around the hurdles being created by these countries India is trying to strengthen its tax treaties with them.
“The authorities (Indian) have indicated that part of their frustration in trying to tackle this (Hawala) problem is the lack of co-operation that they receive from some countries where the transfers originate,” said the multi-national Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental organisation founded in 1989 by the G7 (group of seven industrialised nations) to develop policies to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
This not wholly true. The hurdles are very much insiders first-charity beginning at home-and then come the foreign tax havens.