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Mumbai: The finance ministry has said passport details will be made mandatory for availing loans of Rs 50 crore and above from public sector banks (PSBs) as it looks to tighten norms following the detection of the Rs 12,600 crore fraud at state-controlled Punjab National Bank (PNB).



This is to ensure quick response in cases of fraud, Rajiv Kumar, secretary, department of financial services wrote on micro blogging website Twitter.

Next step on clean N #Responsible #banking.

Passport details a must for loans > 50 cr. Steps to ensure quick response in case of Frauds.@PMOIndia @FinMinIndia @PIB_INDIA pic.twitter.com/fcnTE3OFjH — Rajeev kumar (@rajeevkumr) March 10, 2018

Passport details will help banks to take timely action and inform the relevant authorities to prevent fraudsters from fleeing the country.

Read: Nirav Modi scam: Jewellery sales dip 20% amid purity concerns about gold, stones, says report



The latest move comes at a time North Block is leaving no stone unturned to bring economic offenders like Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi to book as they are refusing to come back to India and face legal proceedings in the country.



Disgraced jewellers Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, at the centre of the PNB scam, are said to have left the country before it became public. The government has also been unsuccessfully seeking to get Mallya extradited from the UK for defaulting on Kingfisher Airlines’ debt repayments.

Mallya is also being sought for questioning over accusations of money laundering. While Mallya has been classified as a willful defaulter, Nirav Modi and Choksi are having charges of fraud and money laundering.

Read: Corruption common in public sector banks but trust intact: Survey

The Union Cabinet last week cleared a tough Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, 2018, to seize all the assets of specified offenders if they flee the country. The Bill provides for confiscating all assets of absconding fraudsters and loan defaulters to recover dues in a bid to tighten noose around fugitives like diamond merchant Nirav Modi and Mallya.

The fugitive Bill, which will apply with retrospective effect to all such persons as soon it comes into force as per Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, will cover cases in which the total value is Rs 100 crore or more to ensure less significant ones don’t overburden the special courts that will hear them.

Once passed, the legislation will give the Centre power to attach all the assets of a person who’s been declared a fugitive and not just those acquired from the proceeds of criminal activity. This will also include benami assets. The government will also establish an international cooperative mechanism later to attach even the foreign assets of those declared fugitives.

Read: How fugitive tycoons like Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya find end of the road

As part of drive to clean the banking system, the finance ministry last week had directed PSBs probe all non-performing asset (NPA) accounts of over Rs 50 crore for possible fraud and accordingly report the cases to CBI.

Besides, the finance ministry had asked banks to monitor loans above Rs 250 crore and red flags whenever the original covenants of the loans are violated. This was spelt out as part of 6-point-reform measures announced for PSBs in January.