Frequent flyers under forex lens

New Delhi: Passengers who frequently bring foreign currency to India in large amounts, have been put under the scanner of a central revenue intelligence agency to check the suspected flow of black money into the country.

About 32,600 Currency Declaration Forms (CDFs) filled up by passengers coming to India have been analysed by Central Economic Intelligence Bureau (CEIB), the nodal agency under finance ministry, for gathering and disseminating intelligence related to financial crimes, official sources said.

These declarations were received by CEIB from various international airports across the country and different customs formations. The names of several international travellers, who are repeatedly visiting India and declaring large amounts of foreign currency, have been identified and forwarded to agencies concerned, they said.

Flyers have to declare foreign currency if it exceeds $5,000 or Indian currency exceeding Rs 25,000 after their arrival in India.

Besides, they need to declare if the aggregate value of foreign exchange exceeds $10,000 under the customs rules.

The foreign exchange, however, can be brought into India without limit. These declarations have to be made in ‘Indian Customs Declaration Form’.

Later, the passengers also have to fill up CDFs mentioning their passport number and other relevant details that are shared with Reserve Bank of India, CEIB and other agencies, the sources said.

As per the norms, passengers are advised to produce CDFs to a bank authorised to deal with the foreign exchange or money changer at the time of conversion of foreign currency into Indian rupee and vice-versa.

These duly filled CDFs are then endorsed by the customs authorities. Different agencies analyse these forms to check the possibility of routing of black money into the country, they said.