ISLAMABAD: The high-powered National Executive Committee (NEC), which met on Tuesday, has approved the risk assessment reports on terror financing and cash smuggling, as the country needs to come out from gray list of Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) had prepared its assessment report on terrorist financing while the Federal Board of Revenue and Customs had prepared the risk assessment report on cash smuggling.
In the meeting, which was chaired by Finance Minister Asad Umar, NACTA made a detailed presentation on the Terrorist Financing Risk Assessment, prepared jointly with the Federal Investigation Agency in consultation with a number of relevant authorities. After detailed deliberations on various aspects of the assessment report, the NEC approved the same subject to addressing certain observations in respect of key policy and legislative areas. NACTA will finalize the report accordingly.
The NEC also approved the risk assessment report on cash smuggling prepared by FBR-Customs.
As the country is trying hard to ensure compliance of FATF’s conditions before its upcoming review meeting scheduled next month, Pakistan is struggling to come out of grey list and fears slipping into the black list in case it failed to meet the demands of FATF, which also ultimately have implications on the country’s expected program of financial bailout from IMF.
The FATF can put the country into black list anytime if it found the progress unsatisfactory on 27 actionable plans till September 2019.
According to sources, out of 27 immediate outcomes (IOs) placed by the FATF to review Pakistan’s progress on money laundering and terror financing, Islamabad has made some progress on around 40 percent of placed IOs but there is unsatisfactory or very little progress on 60 percent IOs, especially on the terrorist financing front.
According to officials of Ministry of Finance, during the important meeting of NEC, Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) presented the analysis on suspicious transaction reports filed by the financial sector in the last three years and the law enforcement actions taken against money laundering and terrorism financing on the basis of such reports.
The NEC advised the authorities concerned to enhance enforcement actions and adopt a result-oriented approach. The NEC chairman advised all the departmental heads to regularly monitor timely implementation of the FATF Action Plan. The need for a coordinated effort with the provinces was also highlighted.
The meeting was attended by the foreign affairs minister, law and justice minister, minister of state for interior, SBP governor, SECP chairman, FIA director general, NACTA director general, FBR-Customs director general and other senior officials of the federal and provincial governments.
