Key laws on money-laundering and funds for terrorism set to be passed
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The Anti Money Laundering Office remains optimistic that it can push for the passage of two draft bills on money laundering and financial support for terrorism this year.
“One draft is already due for parliamentary deliberation and another is being vetted for some wording changes,” AMLO secretary general Sihanart Prayoonrat said yesterday.
Sihanart said the draft on money laundering would be debated in Parliament soon while the bill on financial support for terrorists was going through the vetting process in order to meet the requirements of the international community.
He said the government and parliamentarians understood why the country must conform to international standards to fight money laundering and terrorism.
“The AMLO expects the two draft laws to be enacted no later than February,” he said.
Once the country has enforced the laws, the AMLO will proceed to remove a blacklist enforced by Europe’s Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which is seen as an impediment to international financial transactions in Thailand, he said.
He said Justice Minister Pracha Promnok had informed the International Monetary Fund last week about progress to enact the two laws.
The House committee in charge of drafting the two laws had done its work and the bills were now being reviewed by the whips prior to House deliberation, Democrat MP Theerarat Samrejvanich said.
Theerarat said lawmakers were aware of the importance to prioritise the two laws, but at the same time they wanted the provisions to be fair and to not exploit or violate people’s rights.
One contentious issue is which court should rule on people accused of being terrorists.
She said the coalition and opposition lawmakers had agreed on the two drafts and wanted to fine-tune certain provisions at this juncture in order to save time during the deliberation process.
Democrat MP Atavit Suwannapakdee said he understood the coalition whips were trying to schedule House deliberation on the two laws as soon as possible.
He said drafting of the two laws had complied with the FATF requirements and that several related laws pertaining to terrorism would be upgraded to ensure this compliance.
