NEW DELHI: The government has highlighted its concern over several countries offering safe havens to economic offenders “through investment-based schemes” and called upon the G20 membership to put in place a mechanism for international cooperation.The issue was flagged by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman at a meeting of G20 finance ministers in Japan, which was also attended by British chancellor of the exchequer Phillip Hammod. In recent years, the UK has emerged as the favourite haunt for fugitives such as Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi , although the courts have initiated action against both.“(The) finance minister drew attention to the practice permitted by many jurisdictions, which allow economic offenders to use investment-based schemes to obtain residence or citizenship to escape from legal consequences and underlined the need to deal with such practices. FM urged that closer collaboration and coordinated action were required to bring such economic offenders to face law,” the finance ministry said in a statement on Sunday evening.Over the last year, India has taken up the issue of economic fugitives at the G20 level, where a similar offensive had resulted in a global drive against tax evaders who stashed money in tax havens. It had resulted in an international agreement for better data flow and tighter regulatory regime on tax avoidance.Nearly 90 tax jurisdictions have now moved to automatic exchange of financial account information (AEOI) on a global basis, which is expected to ensure tax evaders ca’t hide their offshore financial accounts from tax administration.At the meeting, India made a pitch for identifying jurisdictions, including developing countries and financial centres, that are relevant but have not yet committed to any timeline for AEOI. “Appropriate action needs to be taken against non-compliant jurisdictions. She (FM) called upon the international community to agree on a toolkit of defensive measures, which can be taken against such non-compliant jurisdictions,” the statement said.While recognising the steps taken to tackle the international tax avoidance menace, Sitharaman also highlighted the tax challenges that have arisen due to digitisation of the economy as e-commerce has emerged as a new headache for authorities.India has supported a solution based on the concept of “significant economic presence” of businesses that factors in the evidence of their purposeful interaction with the economy of a country.