Guidelines to maintain confidentiality of information provided by FIU-IND - Income Tax - F. No 290/17/2012-Dir (Inv. IV)/ I

F. No 290/17/2012-Dir (Inv. IV)/ I Government of India Ministry of Finance Department of Revenue Central Board Of Direct Taxes Room No. 504, 5th Floor, Dr. S.P.Mukherjee Civic Centre, Minto Road, New Delhi - 110002 14th September, 2018 Sub : Guidelines to maintain confidentiality of information provided by FIU-IND Ref: CBDT s O.M. vide F. No. 290/27/2013-Dir (Inv. IV)/442 dated 27th June, 2014, 291 dated 6th May, 2015, F.No. 290/52/ 2013/ Dir.(Inv.IV)/378 dated 15th May, 2015, F. No. 290/27/2013 Dir(lnv. IV)/ 2916 dated 31.3.2016 and 04th September, 2017 1. The undersigned is directed to invite kind attention to the. instructions issued by CBDT under reference. for handling of information from FIU-IND. It has been reiterated by CBDT that information from FIU-IND is to be handled with utmost confidentiality and all concerned must ensure that the source of information as FIU-IND is not disclosed in any communication. 2. Further, all correspondences to FIU-IND including request of information in connection with investigation are to be routed through the Nodal Officer, CBDT, i.e. Deputy Secretary, Inv.IV, CBDT and no communication should be sent to FIU directly. References under the Egmont Framework of Exchange of Information must be made in the requisite pro-forma and forwarded through the PDIT(Inv.)/ DGIT(Inv.) to CBDT for onward transmission to FIU. Recovery related requests are to be routed through Nodal Officer at Directorate of Recovery, Addl. DIT, Directorate of Recovery. 3. However, despite above instructions, FIU has brought to the notice of CBDT certain instances wherein, direct communications have been sent: to FIU, mentioning the source of information as FIU, which was returned by FIU for routing through Nodal Officer, CBDT, Further, in respect of the foreign intelligence received through FIU-IND, it has come to notice that officers have written directly to FIU enclosing copies of dissemination note containing foreign intelligence. In certain cases, the fact that investigations have been initiated on the basis of an STR have been shared with assessee and the assessee has in turn approached the bank branch seeking reasons for filing of the STR. The FlU has strongly objected to the same and viewed it as a breach of MoU. 4. In this regard, the undersigned is directed to reiterate that the source of information as FIU or foreign agency is not to be disclosed in any of the communications and all references to this effect may be mentioned as credible information has been received to effect that. It may be noted that India is under international commitment to maintain strict confidentiality in respect of information shared by the foreign disclosing agencies and any breach in this regard may cause an irreparable damage, even leading to stoppage of information sharing by the foreign jurisdictions and approaching Egmont Group for compliance action against FIU-IND. 4.1 In this regard, the undersigned is further directed to state that CBDT and FIU have agreed to share information as per a Memorandum of Understanding and both the organisations are bound by it, 4.2 The Memorandum of Understanding between CBDT and FIU-IND prescribes maintenance of strict confidentiality of information received FIU-IND, As per the MoU, CBDT has agreed to ensure that the information disseminated by FlU-IND, whether in paper or electronic form, including the source of information, is protected from unauthorised use and proliferation and kept confidential, throughout the chain of transmission of the information . Further, While disseminating the information, CBDT is required to ensure that dissemination is done on need to know basis and such information will not be transferred to a third party without prior consent of the party from whom information was received. Further, information received from FIU-IND will not be used as evidence in any departmental or judicial proceedings and the identity of the entity from whom information has been received or the name of the officer who has forwarded information, shall not be disclosed, in any departmental or judicial proceedings . 4.3 The Board has taken a very serious view of the repeated instances of such breach of confidentiality despite unambiguous guidelines to the field formation in this regard. 5. In view of the above, it may be brought to the notice of all concerned that: (i) Utmost confidentiality must be maintained in respect of information and documents received from FIU-IND throughout the chain of transmission. (ii) These shall not be shared with/by or allowed access to any person in contravention of the MoU and guidelines of CBDT in this regard. (ii) The source of information as FIU-IND or STR shall not be mentioned by any officer in any communication with .any third party, including banks. (iv) All communications to FIU should be routed through the Nodal Officer, CBDT, Deputy Secretary, Inv. IV, CBDT. Recovery related requests may be routed through Nodal Officer, Recovery, i.e. Addl. DIT, Directorate of Recovery. (v) In summons/ notices/ assessment orders or any other communications, ITOs/ ADsIT/ DDsIT/ Addl. DsIT/ DsIT and the AOs/JCsIT/Addl. CsIT/CsIT may not refer to the source of the information and name of FIU-IND should not be mentioned. For making any reference to the source of information, it may be mentioned in the that credible information / source information has been received to the effect that . (vi) Information received from FIU-IND will not be used as evidence in any departmental or judicial proceedings and the identity of the entity from whom information has been received or the name of the officer who has forwarded the information, shall not be disclosed, in any departmental or judicial proceedings. 6. Any deviation/ violation of above guidelines shall he viewed adversely inviting strict action against the concerned official. This may be widely circulated and brought to the notice of all concerned. 7. This issues with the approval of Chairman, CBDT, [Member (Investigation), CBDT]. (Kalpana Singh) Deputy Secretary to the Govt. of India (Investigation IV), CBDT