New Delhi: The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, 2018 replacing the fugitive economic offenders’ ordinance. The bill empowers authorities to attach and confiscate the assets of fugitive economic offenders and aims to deter them from fleeing the country in an attempt to evade prosecution.

The fugitive economic offenders’ ordinance was promulgated in April to initiate seizure of assets of jewellersNiravModi and his uncle MehulChoksi, who fled the country after being accused of the Rs 13,000crore-Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud.

The bill allows for a person to be declared a fugitive economic offender if an arrest warrant is issued against him/her for any specified offence involving over Rs 100 crore and the accused leaves the country and refuses to return to face prosecution.

Speaking during a two-hour-long debate on the bill, finance ministerPiyushGoyal said the proposed legislation will ensure justice is not denied.

He said the government’s move to bring an ordinance reflected its “aggressiveness” in taking action against black money offenders.

Initiating the debate, Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) member NK Premchandran said he supported the provisions of the bill but added that the government should not have brought an ordinance.

BharatiyaJanata Party’s (BJP) NishikantDubey blamed the previous UPA government for the rise in non-performing assets of the banks. He said absconding accused like Vijay Mallya, NiravModi and MehulChoksi were “products” of the Congress government, which had also “facilitated” their scams.

“Rs 9.93 lakh crore of the Rs 10 lakh crore of NPAs had originated during the UPA era. Countries like the UK, the US and China amended their laws to deal with such offences, but the UPA government never did it,” he said.