Lok Sabha passes Bemi Transactions Amendment Bill

New Delhi, July 27: The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the Bemi Transactions Amendment Bill, which seeks to amend the definition of “bemi” transactions, establish adjudicating authorities and an appellate tribul. “The legislation has the provision of confiscating bemi assets and it is predomintly an anti-black money measure,” Union Fince Minister Arun Jaitley said while moving the bill. He said the purpose of the bill is to discourage the activity of acquiring the properties in the me of fictitious and other people. The bill also specifies prosecution and pelty for entering into bemi, proxy transactions. The Bemi Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Bill, 2015, introduced in the Lok Sabha in May last year, seeks to amend the Bemi Transactions Act, 1988. The bill primarily seeks to amend the definition of “bemi” transactions, establish adjudicating authorities and an Appellate Tribul to deal with such transactions, and specify the pelty for entering into these. It empowers the government to confiscate “bemi” property. The existing Act had several loopholes, including the absence of an appellate mechanism and lack of provisions for vesting of the confiscated property with the Centre.  (IANS)