Student loan repayment defaulters who ignore contact from Inland Revenue face arrest at the border.

Inland Revenue is looking into 20 student loan defaulters for possible arrest if they attempt to return to New Zealand.

Today the Government announced it was aiming to collect an additional $100 million a year in overseas student loan repayments, saying a new agreement with Australia will make it easier to track down recalcitrant borrowers across the Tasman.

An estimated $3.1 billion is owed by around 110,000 Kiwis with student loans living overseas.

As part of Budget 2013, the Government announced it was stepping up a campaign to improve repayment, including giving the power for border arrests for the "most non-compliant" defaulters.

Ministers have also considered refusing to renew passports for those who do not engage with Inland Revenue.

Today Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce and Revenue Minister Todd McClay said that IRD is currently monitoring 20 people they might consider arresting.

"IRD has attempted this before and in each case the borrower has made repayments before the arrest."

McClay said a new information-sharing arrangement with the Australian Tax Office becomes operational in mid-2016, giving IRD added contact information of borrowers living across the Tasman.

"For those defaulting borrowers who don't call, their contact details will start coming in from next year and Inland Revenue will follow these up," McClay said.

Since 2010 IRD has collected more than $200m in student loan debt which it otherwise would not have without chasing borrowers, including $79m in the year to June 30.

"Just because people have left New Zealand it doesn't mean they can leave behind their debt.

"The New Zealand taxpayer helped to fund their education and they have an obligation to repay it so the scheme can continue to support future generations of students," Joyce said.

The $100m-a-year target would be met by "targeting first-time defaulters, tracking and tracing more borrowers overseas and using legal action when appropriate," Joyce said.