Bad days ahead for money launderers: Pranab

KOCHI: Reiterating India's commitment to having international standards to combat money laundering and financing of terrorism, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Tuesday that the government is in the process of making amendments to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.It is being done to make legislation more effective in dealing with the menace, he said after inaugurating the 14th annual meeting of the Asia-Pacific Group (APG) on money laundering here.The impact of money laundering on society was enormous and multidimensional. "It has socioeconomic, political as well as security implications on any nation. Socioeconomic impacts are crippling illicit funds generated from criminal activities such as fraud, corruption, extortion, arms deal, drug and human trafficking, and other forms of organised crime are laundered into clean currency, and in turn are used to fund new criminal operations or expand existing ones.This translates into more illegal and criminal activities, and in turn more international terrorism," he added.The global menace of money laundering cannot be contained by any one nation alone. It was after realising the threats of money laundering that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was formed.