Stiffer law for fugitive economic offenders

New Delhi: The Centre has prepared a draft of its Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill that proposes that the government can attach a fugitive economic offender’s property even without a court order if it believes that any delay may “result in the property being unavailable for confiscation.”

Only those cases where the total value involved is Rs 100 crore or above will be within the purview of the proposed law. The finance ministry on Thursday made the draft Bill available for public comments.

In the Union Budget, finance minister Arun Jaitley had announced that the government would introduce a new law to confiscate the assets of high-value economic offenders absconding from India.

Applications for action must contain reasons for the belief that an individual is a fugitive economic offender, and a list of properties owned by the person in India for which confiscation is sought.