New Delhi, April 14: The long-delayed amendments to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) have been finalised bringing not only international credit card transactions and money transfers under the scanner but also a new category of offences with “cross-border implications.” This includes “offences which occur in another country, which may or may not constitute an offence in that country but is an offence in India.”

The Finance Ministry has prepared this new set of amendments in a note for the Cabinet — the new PMLA is scheduled to be introduced in the current session of Parliament.

As per the note, regulation of International Payment Gateways — Visa, Master Card and Western Union — will be done via a “payment system operator” that will come within the ambit of “financial Institutions.”

The draft PMLA amendment Bill 2008, available with The Indian Express, has a lengthy list of offences from 20 existing laws being included as scheduled offences under PMLA. The most important is the inclusion of certain sections of the SEBI Act. The new section states that the intention is “to curb insider trading and market manipulation.”

Also listed are sections of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 13 offences of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act which relate to terrorism and terror funding as well as offences under the Explosive Substances Act.

Another key amendment is the increase of the provisional attachment of property from proceeds of crime from the existing 90 days to 150 days since the Finance Ministry has noted, “The (existing) process does not leave much time for completion of the adjudicating proceedings (by the ED).