ED may seek revenue intelligence assistance

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is set to seek assistance from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in its probe against a ‘module’ comprising of traders and middlemen that had allegedly availed of the services of 66 Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) accounts in irregular foreign exchange transactions worth R505 crore.

“Revelations made by two of the accused arrested by us led to the detection of the suspected group’s usage of OBC accounts. The agency will seek details from the DRI that had earlier examined these irregularities,” said an ED source.

The ED had arrested an alleged key operator of the module last week in course of its probe into the money laundering aspect of the allegedly irregular transmission of forex remittances worth `6,000 crore from 59 Bank of Baroda (BoB) accounts. According to the source, the agency may soon seek clarifications from a few then OBC officials in connection with transactions linked to the 66 accounts under its scanner as well.

An ED officer told HT, “The accounts which are under scrutiny have been closed in 2010, so these are old cases which are being investigated.”

Enforcement Directorate’s probe has found that the alleged irregularities linked to BoB as well as OBC were “not cases of black money stashed abroad but of trade-based money laundering where exporters and importers gain duty drawback (incentive/refund) and save customs duty by over-invoicing and under-invoicing, respectively,” according to the source.

The cost to an exporter for remitting $1 abroad was around `1.20, much lesser than the `1.70 for remitting $1 if done through illegal hawala route, said a source.