Lok Sabha Question No. 5275 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-04-03
Subject: Money Laundering by Corporates
Ministry: FINANCE
Asked by: N.K. Premachandran

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF FINANCE DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE

## LOK SABHA UN-STARRED QUESTION NO. 5275

TO BE ANSWERED ON MONDAY, THE APRIL 3 rd , 2023

## Money Laundering by Corporates

## 5275.   SHRI N.K. PREMACHANDRAN:

Will the Minister of FINANCE be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government proposes to prevent the money laundering by the corporates, if so, the details of action taken thereon;
- (b) the details regarding the corporates arrested for alleged money laundering during the last five years;
- (c) whether  the  Government  proposes  to  monitor  the  Non-Banking  Finance  Companies (NBFC), if so the details of action taken thereon;
- (d) whether the action taken by the Government to promote the corporates were misused, if so, the details thereof;
- (e) whether the corporates have furnished their audited stand alone and consolidated financial statement as per the SEBI norms, if so, the details thereof, if not, the action taken against the defaulters during the last 5 years; and
- (f) whether  the  banks  have  taken  action  against  the  corporates  for  defaulting  on  interest payments  for  external  commercial  borrowings,  if  so,  the  details  of  action  taken  in  this regard?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE (SHRI PANKAJ CHAUDHARY)

(a)  to  (d):  Central  Government has enacted various laws such as FEMA, PMLA and Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 (FEOA) to prevent money laundering. Directorate of Enforcement is mandated with the task of enforcement of provisions of these laws.

The number of persons arrested by ED in the last five years (1.4.2018 to 28.2.2023) is 374,  which  includes  a  number  of  directors  of  corporates  involved  in  money  laundering.  No separate data  related  to  corporate fraud  is being  maintained  because  PMLA  cases  generally involve  several  other  offences  also.  However,  in  major  cases  of  corporate fraud  viz.  Sterling Biotech, fraud committed by companies of Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi & Mehul Choksi, Directorate has attached  properties  worth  Rs.  33,862.20  crore.  Out  of  which,  assets  worth  Rs.15113.02

crores have been confiscated and restituted to the Public Sector Banks. Further, the consortium of banks led by SBI has realized Rs.7975.27 crore by sale of assets handed over to them by Directorate of Enforcement.

To  strengthen  the  Know  Your  Customer  Anti-Money  Laundering  (KYC  AML)  Supervision  of NBFCs and in alignment with the supervisory strategy adopted for Scheduled Commercial Banks and select urban co-operative banks(UCBs), RBI is in the process of implementing the Risk Based Approach (RBA) for KYC AML Supervision of select NBFCs. The RBA inter-alia includes an analytical  model developed  to  risk  score  and  risk  profile  the  targeted  NBFCs,  based on  their submission to a specifically designed supervisory data template covering various aspects relating to KYC AML such as Customer Due Diligence, Transaction Monitoring, Customer Risk Profiling etc.

(e) As per the information submitted by the stock exchanges (BSE, NSE and MSEI), details of listed companies regarding submission of audited financial statements as per SEBI regulations from the Financial Year 2017-18 to 2021-22 are as under:

| Particulars                                                                                                  |   FY 2021- 22 |   FY 2020- 21 |   FY 2019- 20 |   FY 2018- 19 |   FY 2017- 18 |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------|---------------|---------------|---------------|---------------|
| Total Number of Listed Companies                                                                             |          5339 |          5267 |          5252 |          5202 |          5479 |
| Number of listed companies which have submitted standalone/ consolidated financials as specified by SEBI     |          4715 |          4688 |          4701 |          4697 |          4699 |
| Number of listed companies which have not submitted standalone/ consolidated financials as specified by SEBI |           624 |           579 |           551 |           505 |           780 |
| Number of listed companies against whom action has been taken by Exchange for non- compliance.               |           281 |           228 |           187 |           160 |           101 |
| Number of listed companies against whom action has not been taken by Exchange.*                              |           343 |           351 |           364 |           345 |           679 |

* Includes companies under insolvency proceedings, suspension, subsequently delisted, etc.

(f) The information is not maintained by RBI.