Committee Constituted to Review Role, Functioning and Structure of CEIB Submits its Report to FM

Committee Constituted to Review Role, Functioning and Structure of CEIB Submits its Report to Finance Minister; Recommends Setting-Up of a Collaborative Hub and Spoke Structure of Partnwership Between CEIB and Enforcement/Regulatory Agencies 

The Central Government had appointed a Committee in March 2011 to review the role, functioning and structure of the Central Economic Intelligence Bureau (CEIB) and to recommend steps to streamline and strengthen financial intelligence gathering and its dissemination for effective coordination amongst the Intelligence Organisations of the Government. The Committee was headed by Shri S. S. Khan, Retired Member, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). Its other members include Ms Vijay Lakshmi Sharma, Retired Member, Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) and Dr. Kewal Ram, Retired Senior Economic Advisor. Shri Arun Sahu, Deputy Director General (CEIB) is the Member Secretary to the Committee. The Committee submitted its report within period of about three months. 

Shri S.S. Khan along with other Members of the Committee except Dr Kewal Ram submitted the report to the Union Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee, here today. The Report recommends that in view of the growing complexity and sophistication of economic offences collaboration across the spectrum of the agencies engaged in enforcement of economic laws ought to be the central tenet of Government’s strategy for combating serious economic offences and organised tax evasion. It has, therefore, recommended setting-up a collaborative “hub and spoke” structure of partnerships between the CEIB and enforcement/regulatory agencies at Central/State levels with the CEIB as the nodal agency at its centre maintaining comprehensive national database of specified types of economic offences investigated by the agencies. The agencies will share information with the CEIB, which, in turn, will be able to provide back-end support, linkages and insights harnessing the power of databases and data analytics to the agencies, and a holistic view of these activities to the Government. 

The Committee has also recommended a series of steps to empower and modernize the CEIB and equip it with IT enabled tools to effectively perform its role in the changing economic scenario. 

The Committee which was constituted in March, 2011 had the following terms of reference: –

a. To study the existing structure of CEIB and make recommendations on measures –

(i) To streamline and strengthen the existing financial intelligence gathering and its dissemination. 

(ii) For effective coordination amongst the intelligence Organizations in the Ministry of Finance and with Intelligence Organizations of the Government of India. 

b. To identify relevant commercial databases for business intelligence analysis by CEIB

c. To suggest structural linkages between CEIB and FIU-IND

d. To prepare a roadmap for CEIB to work in line with the best global practices. e. Any other related issues.