Dutch gov't to push through with ban on cash purchases over €3,000 to not lose EU grant
The outgoing Dutch government wants to push through with a plan to ban cash purchases above 3,000 euros. The ban is part of an anti-money laundering bill that was declared controversial, meaning the outgoing government can’t touch it. But failing to implement the ban would mean the Netherlands loses out on 600 million euros of European money, Ministers Steven van Weyenberg of Finance and Dilan Yeşilgöz of Justice and Security wrote to parliament on Tuesday.
A legal limit on cash payments is one of the requirements of the Dutch Recovery and Resilience Plan (HVP), which the Netherlands must implement to be entitled to money from the EU coronavirus fund. The deadline to implement this measure is 31 March 2025. If the Netherlands misses that deadline, it will lose out on 600 million euros.
The Ministers suggested only implementing the cash purchase limit from the anti-money laundering action plan bill, which parliament previously declared controversial, through an amendment to the original bill. That way, the Netherlands won’t miss the deadline for the 600 million euros in EU money.
The other measures in the bill can be implemented later by the next Cabinet, possibly in conjunction with the upcoming European Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism package, which is expected to take effect in 2027.
The Ministers want to combat money laundering with this limit on cash purchases. According to them, criminals often use large sums of cash to get their criminally obtained money into circulation without a paper trial alerting the authorities.
