ISLAMABAD            -            Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue on Thursday expressed concerns over the Anti-Money Laundering Act and recommended that changes need to be made to the existing rules. The Committee met under the Chairmanship of Senator Saleem Mandiwalla to consider and finalize the recommendations on the Money Bill, the Tax Laws (Second amendment) Bill, 2022. The committee reprimanded that the Anti Money Laundering (AML) Act serves as a source of harassment for the business community. The members noted that how come concealment of money perhaps to evade tax, is a terrorist act or a criminal offence. The committee argued that until the offence are established no notices under the AML Act should be issued. Senator Kamil Ali Agha recommended that a tax payer should be subject to various initiatives in order to welcome the Pakistani Nationals to pay taxes. The AML act restrains the public to enrol as a tax payer fearing the consequences of notices. The FBR authorities apprised the committee that concealment of income exceeding Rs10 million comes under the ambit of criminal offense. The directorate general intelligence & investigation (Inland Revenue) apprised on the status of AML investigations prosecutions and convictions which is 254, 113 and 2090 respectively with a crime proceed of Rs358,130 million Rs238.342 million and fine of amounting to Rs0.5 million under AMLA, 2010 and Rs0.1 million under income tax ordinance, 2001. In his briefing to the committee by the FBR chairman, it was disclosed that some 254 cases had been filed under the Anti-Money Laundering Act over the past six years. Moreover, he briefed that a vast majority of the anti-money laundering cases, around 300 of the 400 cases, were determined to be accurate by the judiciary. During the meeting, member Senator Farooq Naek clarified that tax evasion and money laundering were two different things. He elaborated that hiding money falls under the category of tax evasion.