Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill passed in Lok Sabha

The Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, 2018, was passed in Lok Sabha earlier in the day.

It prescribes measures to deter fugitive economic offenders from evading prosecution by staying abroad.

The bill will now be taken up in Rajya Sabha.

Addressing the Lok Sabha earlier in the day, Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal had said that the Fugitive Economic Offenders ordinance was the need of the hour.

"Cases, where the total value involved in such offences is Rs.100 crore or more, will come under its purview. Till 2014 nothing was done on this front," he added.

For those unversed, Fugitive Economic Offender is a person against whom an arrest warrant has been issued in respect of a scheduled offence (a scheduled offence refers to a list of economic offences contained in the schedule to this Bill) and who has left India so as to avoid criminal prosecution, or being abroad, refuses to return to India to face criminal prosecution.

The Bill was introduced in Lok Sabha on March 12. It seeks to confiscate properties of economic offenders who have left the country to avoid facing criminal prosecution.

Once the Bill becomes a law, it aims to create a special forum for the expeditious confiscation of the proceeds of crime, in India or abroad.

It would also coerce the fugitive to return to India to submit to the jurisdiction of Courts in India to face the law in respect of scheduled offences.