Enforcement Directorate

The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) is a law enforcement agency and economic intelligence agency in India. It is responsible for carring out economic laws and fighting economic crime in India. It is part of the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government Of India. ED is consisting of officers from the Indian Revenue Service, Indian Police Service and the Indian Administrative Service as well as promoted officers from its own cadre.

History

The origin of this Directorate goes back to 1 May 1956, when an ‘Enforcement Unit’ was formed, in Department of Economic Affairs. It was created for handling Exchange Control Laws violations under Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947. In the year 1957, this unit was renamed as ‘Enforcement Directorate’.

Objective

The main objective of the Enforcement Directorate is the enforcement of three key acts of the Government of India namely, the Foreign Exchange Management Act 1999 (FEMA), the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002 (PMLA) and The Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 (FEOA).

The ED's (Enforcement Directorate) official website enlists its other objectives which are primarily linked to checking money laundering in India.

Criticism

In July 2022, according to data shared by the Union government in Parliament, only 23 people have been convicted in 5,422 cases registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the 17 years after the law was passed. Because of such, conviction rate of less than 0.5%. The cases by ED have gone up six times in Modi's second term. It led to accusations by opposition parties. They stated that ED is being misused by the BJP for their political ends.