Govt plans unique code to identify entities involved in financial offences

The government is planning a unique code for each entity that is accused of economic offences, reported The Times of India (TOI). The identification number will be called the 'Unique Economic Offender Code' which will be unique for each company or individual. 

Additionally, this number will be linked with the offender's Aadhaar number in the case of an individual and PAN in the case of a company.

The Central Economic Intelligence Bureau under the finance ministry has created a repository of about 250,000 such offenders. The government believes that having a unique code for each of these offenders will ensure faster and more effective action against these entities. 

Moreover, this will help facilitate a smoother probe by multiple agencies. At present, one agency has to conclude its investigation and share its findings with other investigations agencies before they can begin their probe.

Quoting sources, TOI reported that this unique code will be alpha-numeric in nature and carry PAN and Aadhaar details to tag cases of economic offences. The code will provide the government with a 360-degree profile of such offenders.

The mechanism will identify economic offenders of all types. From fugitives like Vijay Mallya to prominent personalities like former Finance Minister P Chidambaram or former Deputy CM of Delhi, Manish Sisodia, details of all these people will be recorded in the database. All of them will be identified with a unique Economic Offender Code.

National Economic Offence Records (NEOR) will serve as the central database for information on all the economic offenders. It is being developed at a cost of Rs 40 crore and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is responsible for coordinating and completing the project with the help of the National Informatics Centre (NIC).