Kathmandu: According to a government report, activities related to financial crimes, including money laundering, have increased by more than 81 percent in Nepal. The annual report of ‘Financial Intelligence Unit-FIU Nepal’ in Nepal Rastra Bank showed that the complaints of suspicious transactions increased by 81.34 percent.
The increase in financial crime complaints from banks and financial institutions and other financial transaction organizations automatically confirms the increase in such transactions. Experts say that due to the problems of good governance in all areas of the country, along with the increase in economic activities, financial crimes have also increased.
According to the report, in the financial year 2077/78 BS, 1533 suspicious transactions (Suspicious Transaction Reporting – STR and Suspicious Activity Reporting – SAR) were received, which increased to 2,780 in the last financial year. Among the complaints received by FIU, it is said that 85.61% were received from commercial banks, 6.73% from remittance companies, 4.28% from development banks and 1.58% from microfinance financial institutions. It is mentioned in the report that there has been an increase in complaints of suspicious transactions from insurance companies, cooperatives, securities trading companies and others.
According to FIU, out of a total of 2,780 complaints received in the last financial year, 1,660 have been analyzed, 409 have been sent to the relevant agencies for further investigation and 659 have been postponed. Among the 409 complaints sent for further investigation, 61 are related to money laundering, 210 are related to Nepal Police, 162 are related to Revenue Investigation Division, 16 are related to Internal Revenue Department, 13 are related to Commision to Investigation of Abuse of Authority and the rest are related to other areas. The report shows that the complaints received from all the mentioned areas have increased in the last financial year compared to the previous financial year. In the previous financial year, FIU transferred 26 complaints related to money laundering, 98 related to Nepal Police, 75 related to Revenue Investigation Department, 3 related to Internal Revenue Department and 2 related to Commision to Investigation of Abuse of Authority.
In the existing law, there is a provision to show the source of all transactions over 1 million. Therefore, if there is any suspicion of financial crime in such transactions, a complaint should be made to the Financial Information Unit. Such a complaint is called Threshold Transaction Report (TTR). In the report, it appears that TTR has increased in the last financial year compared to the previous year. But the TTR has decreased in the last two financial years as compared to the financial year 2076/77 and previous years. FIU claims that the decrease in TTR is due to changes in the complaint system. According to the report, 24 lakh 1714 TTRs have been received by FIU in the last financial year. In financial year 077/78 such number was 19 lakh 99 thousand 46 and in financial year 076/77 such number was 24 lakh 41 thousand.
