The body appointed by India’s Supreme Court to probe illicit fund flows abroad is recommending the establishment of a unit dedicated to examining document discrepancies.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) wants the unit set up along the lines of one already operational in the US, the Trade Transparency Unit.

Dedicated unit
The unit would look for and examine document discrepancies between India’s export and import data with those of other countries.

This would enable the authorities to put an approximate figure on the amount of funds channeled through trade-based money laundering networks using mis-invoicing techniques.

Wider concerns
Mis-invoicing either in international or domestic is a concern for SIT since it is used extensively for tax evasion purposes.

Iron ore and diamonds feature amongst those export and import trades that SIT views as prone to trade based money laundering networks