ED to get back teeth to check terrorist funding

new delhi: the government plans to give more teeth to enforcement directorate to check terrorist funding by removing certain lacunae in the provisions of foreign exchange management act. this has been necessitated as the fema, which replaced foreign exchange regulation act in may 2000, has diluted the powers of enforcement directorate. with foreign exchange violations becoming civil offence under fema unlike in fera where it was a criminal offence, enforcement directorate can now only search and seize currency from persons suspected to be involved in hawala operations, but cannot arrest or prosecute them. any terrorist funding case now detected by enforcement directorate had to be handed over to police for arrests, making investigation difficult, official sources said. along with fema, government had planned to enact prevention of money laundering bill, but it was delayed having been referred to a rajya sabha select committee. with the selec committee having made its recommendations, the money laundering bill is now expected to be passed either in the budget or monsoon session.