Why India needs a powerful think tank in economic intelligence to stop Niravs & Mallyas -
Opinion
03/03/2018
1157
Sub : Why India needs a powerful think tank in economic intelligence to stop Niravs & Mallyas -
Ref : Media report,
The Economics Times
Shantanu Nandan Sharma, ET Bureau|
It was early 2008. The then chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), R Prasad, wanted to link all securities transaction tax (STT) data to the personal computers in his North Block office. As it turned out, the data — amounting to 81 GB — was humongous for the time, and the technician politely refused the chairman’s order, saying it would only result in the computers crashing.
Had it been thoroughly mined, the data on STT, a direct tax introduced in 2004 and is payable on the value of securities transactions done through stock exchanges, would have possibly given key intelligence leads to the income-tax department on a platter.
Prasad says nothing much has changed in the last 10 years, and the Rs 11,300 crore Punjab National BankBSE -0.35 % fraud case, in which diamond merchants Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi allegedly duped the bank before fleeing the country, is as much a failure of intelligence sharing as it’s a case of connivance, greed, faulty audit and laxity on the part of the banking regulator, RBI.
“Does the Central Economic Intelligence Bureau (CEIB) or any other agency have a robust IT system to handle intelligence data gathered from across the country? The government must hire a reputed IT firm and put in place an intelligence gathering software. If an economic crime is committed in a far-flung town, it should automatically get recorded in the central system,” Prasad told ET Magazine.
The CEIB, which Prasad refers to, was created way back in 1985 to coordinate with law enforcement agencies and prepare dossiers of tax evaders, violators of economic laws, white collar criminals, etc. Not just that, according to the agency’s revised charter of 2003, the CEIB is the official think tank among the intelligence agencies on issues relating to economic offences.
The Bigger Picture :-
But a reality check of the CEIB’s office in Delhi will tell you that it’s too small an organisation to be a national think tank in economic intelligence. Yes, the agency has a handful of outstanding officers; its director-general Mitali Madhusmita, for example, is a senior Indian Revenue Service (Income-Tax) officer. But a team of 40-45 employees, with only 10 of them officers, can’t track economic frauds and white collar crimes from across the country. It does not have an IT system that automatically registers each and every economic crime committed in every nook and corner of the country. Nor does it receive the RBI’s inspection reports, which are considered critical to analyse bank frauds, like the one in PNBBSE -0.35 %.
NOTE : -
Here's how a thief manages to outsmart police in India, ET Bureau -
1.
Many economic crimes continue for a long period due to lack of specific intelligence sharing. That’s how the chor (thief) gets ahead of the sipahi (soldier), as in the fable. It’s not that various intelligence agencies don’t share information.
2.
They do share. But some information, perceived to be sensitive for various reasons, are not passed over. Key information is not shared mainly because of the fear of losing turf. And there are a few occasions when information is not shared because of lack of trust among agencies. Also, the government moves slowly, as it has to follow certain procedures in procurement and also in getting specialised manpower.
3.
By the time the government puts in place a new technology, the chor moves a step ahead and procures a newer version. It’s not that specialists from the private sector are not hired for work such as deciphering a seized computer’s hard disk or for recovering deleted messages. But the government is very slow in engaging tech-savvy young minds from the private sector.
4.
Sharing of anything and everything won’t help much. A case proceeds well only if the intelligence inputs are specific. The shared information must have the elements such as location, timing, phone numbers etc.
In the case of the PNB fraud, questions are being raised about the conduct of many: the bank’s employees, the bank’s auditors, Reserve Bank of India, the Comptroller and Auditor General and even income tax department officials, particularly the assessing officers of Nirav Modi.
6.
In this case, any investigative agency or even the state police could have come in, if an affected party had complained. But none from the bank concerned complained.
7.
What’s needed is an effective coordination mechanism among economic intelligence agencies so as to pre-empt future frauds and white collar crimes. Since the GST is all online, it should be able to plug some loopholes.
OPINION :-
1. BUREAUCRACY, BANKS, ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES, CBI AND ... MANY MORE
ARE HIGHLY PAID SERVANTS TO KEEP VIGILE TO PROTECT NATION'S ASSETS AND SECURE THE FINANCIAL SECTOR UNDER TIGHT CONTROL;
2. INDIAN ARMY ALONG WITH ALL WINGS OF DEFENCE, WITH PARA MILITARY UNITS, WORK DAY AND NIGHT TO KEEP HIGH ALERT, AND PROTECT NATION'S SOVERIGHNITY, THESE PERSONS ARE LESS PAID, THAN ALL CIVIL ORGANIZATIONS EMPLOYEES;
3. IF ANY NEGLIGENCE FOUND IN THE CIVIL SERVICE , MUST BE SEVERELY PUNISHED;
4. NO REGARD TO ANY OFFICIAL POST HEAD, WHO MISERABLY FAILS IN DUTIES, WARRENTED SEVERE ACTION, NO MERCY;
5. BHARATHAM, HER PEOPLE ARE LETHARGIC AND LAZY, SO THE CRIMINALS ARE BUSY IN THEIR SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS, HERE SINCE INDEPENDENCE, SAB CHALEGA, SAB CHALTHA HAI, MERA KYA HAI, LIKE ATTITUDE RISING AT GREAT VELOCITY, AND SCAVENGERS WERE, ARE, WILL BE LOOTING THIS HOLY NATION .....
BEWARE! BEWARE!! BEWARE!!!
Thank you for reading
JAIHIND.
VANDE MATHARAM
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