RAWALPINDI-Illegal business of financial transaction (hundi/hawala) is once again on the rise in the city while authorities concerned are paying little heed to this practice, which causes hefty loss to government in terms of taxes. A few months back, FIA carried out a massive crackdown against illegal business of financial transaction of billions of dollars per year. After that crackdown, the hundi business went dormant for a few months but now the same fishy characters just by changing names and business locations are fleecing government resources unabated. In Rawalpindi, many operators of these systems run other businesses like travel agencies, import/export companies and moneychangers. A hub of this business is carrying on in Saddar and Raja Bazaar. Hawala transactions go through a specialist broker. The person who wants to send money gives the broker the cash plus fee, the broker then issue a hawala number along with the contact number of its agent in respective city where one wants to transfer money. That broker then contacts its counterpart in the recipients country who delivers the money after confirmation of receivers identity and hawala number. Neither the sender nor the receiver required to submit any document(s) with the agent. In that process money itself doesnt move, neither electronically nor physically, the system is based on trust. Brokers later balance the transfers over time, which occurred in form of dollars, and from gulf countries especially in form of gold. It is pertinent to note that all the transactions are carried out in US dollars, while the agent takes Rs 0.40 against a US dollar, however, commission rate varies from country to country. Despite this an agent generates money during transfer of dollars into some other currency. Syed Aamir Ali, an importer of mobile parts from China said, Sometimes our business community, which is not very literate, finds it difficult to deal with the banks; it is rather a reliant, cheap and fast system of transfers without an actual movement of money, based only on trust. An office-bearer of Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry laid out the details of this illegal activity and said that because of the significant difference in exchange rate between curb market and banks, people prefer to send their money through Hundi. Hundi got a big international push in 1970s with an exodus of millions of Pakistanis to other countries in search of better-paying jobs abroad especially in gulf. He said that a businessman in Pakistan was not allowed to take more than $10,000 cash along with him, thats why business community also takes advantage of hundi. These informal channels arise in absence of political stability, security or when people strive to evade taxes and money movement restrictions, he added. In addition there are numerous time-consuming, 4-5 days, procedures with bank officials to hurdle before the money can be received. Hawala operators, on the other hand, deliver the money within 24 hours. Approximately an estimated $7 billion were routed through the hundi/hawala system in the country every year against less then a billion dollars through legal channels, he added. Local hundi dealers mostly work in Pakistan, gulf countries, Europe and Latin America, where majority of Pakistanis are earning bread and bread. This is causing mammoth loss to governments earning through taxes, on the other hand it is also causing businessmen to wind up their business.