Lok Sabha Question No. 2966 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-03-18
Subject: No Money For Terror (NMFT) Conference
Ministry: HOME AFFAIRS
Asked by: Shri Jagdambika Pal

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2966

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 18 TH  MARCH, 2025/ PHALGUNA 27, 1946 (SAKA)

NO MONEY FOR TERROR (NMFT) CONFERENCE

2966.     SHRI JAGDAMBIKA PAL:

Will the Minister of HOME AFFAIRS be pleased to state:

(a) the details of India's key contributions and interventions at the 4th No Money For Terror (NMFT) Conference held in Munich, Germany;

(b)  the  steps  being  taken  by  the  Government  to  address  the  issue  of cross-border terror financing, especially in light of the increasing complexity due to digital financial channels;

- (c) the regulatory and technological measures considered by the Government to combat the threat of digital technologies being  used  for terror financing;
- (d)  the  manner  in  which  India's  participation  in  NMFT  Conferences  has influenced domestic policies on countering terror financing; and
- (e)  whether  there  are  any  policy  changes  under  consideration  following the Munich Conference, if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS (SHRI NITYANAND RAI)

(a) & (b) During  the  4 th   NMFT  Conference  India  advocated  that  unity amongst  nations  is  essential  in  the  fight  against  Terrorism  and  India stands steadfast with the global community in this fight.

India raised concerns that Terror financing increasingly has cross border linkages in terms of flow of  funds  and  due  to  the  development  of  new

digital technologies; the sources, methods and channels used for flow of assets by terrorists are becoming increasingly more complex, and pose a significant challenge to global security.

In  order  to  meet  the  challenges  of  terror  funding,  the  Government  has strengthened the intelligence  set up  to collect, collate  and  disseminate information on real time basis, the legal regime has been strengthened by amending the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 , and a Terror Funding and Fake Currency (TFFC) Cell and three new verticals related to Cyber Terrorism, Explosive and Prohibited Arms and Human Trafficking have been created in  NIA  to  conduct  focused  investigation  of  terror  funding  and  fake currency  cases.  A  Fake  Indian  Currency  Note  Co-ordination  Centre (FCORD)  has  been  formed  by  the  Ministry  of  Home  Affairs  to  share intelligence inputs and information amongst the different security agencies of the Centre and States to curb the circulation of Counterfeit currencies in the country.

(c)  & (d)   The regulatory aspects for the Financial Ecosystem are being looked after by Reserve Bank of India.

The Prevention of Money Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Rules, 2005 empowers the Director, Financial Intelligence Unit- India (FIU-IND) to issue guidelines in consultation with the concerned regulator for detecting and reporting suspicious transactions to FIU-IND. Accordingly, guidelines have been  developed  for effective detection and reporting of suspicious transactions. Red flag  indicators  for  various  sectors  of  the  financial  eco system along with  principles  for  implementation  for  generation  of  alerts are also being issued from time to time by FIU-IND.

The Amendments in UAPA and NIA Act, 2019, relating to assets seizure, attachment and forfeiture have been instrumental in further strengthening the countering of terror financing.

To  adopt  targeted  and  continuous  engagement  with  Reporting  Entities (REs)  and  Law  Enforcement  Agencies  (LEAs),  FIU-IND  has  taken  the initiative  of  forming  a  Permanent  Working  Group  on  Terror  Financing Identification.  This  includes  diverse  stakeholders  like  representatives  of existing  REs,  domain  experts  from  LEAs,  experts  from  social  media platforms, instant messaging platforms, crowd funding platforms etc.

Department of Revenue, in order to address the Money Laundering (ML) and  Terror Financing  (TF) risks arising from  Virtual Digital  Assets (Cryptocurrencies),  brought  the  Virtual  Digital  Asset  Service Providers

(VDA SPs) under the ambit of PMLA 2002. The VDA SPs are mandated to fulfil Anti  Money  Laundering/Combating  the  Financing of Terrorism/ Counter  Proliferation  Financing  (AML/CFT/CPF)  obligations  as  cast  on Reporting Entities (REs) under the Prevention of Money Laundering (PML) Act  2002  and  PML  Rules  2005.  This  inter  alia  includes  periodic  risk assessment  of  customers,  Know  Your  Customer  (KYC),  Client  Due Diligence  (CDD),  Enhanced  Due  Diligence  (EDD),  Sanctions  Screening, Transaction Monitoring and reporting thereof.

National  Intelligence  Grid  (NATGRID),  has  also  been  created  as  an  IT platform to assist the intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

India is participating in NMFT Conferences since 2018. Over the years, our understanding  on  Combating  the  Financing  of  Terrorism  issues  has significantly improved. Enhanced coordination among agencies has led to improve Intelligence generation, which has supplemented law enforcement efforts and enabled targeted preventive measures by regulators and Supervisors.

(e) No such policy changes are under consideration.

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