Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill aimed to empower authorities to confiscate properties of economic absconders, tabled in Parliament

New Delhi, July 25: The Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill 2018 seeks to lay down measures to empower Indian authorities to confiscate properties of economic absconders. This was said by Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday in Rajya Sabha.

 

During the detailed discussion in Rajya Sabha over Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill before it gets go-ahead signal, Minister Piyush Goyal in his said that the bill seeks to lay down measures to empower Indian authorities to attach and confiscate proceeds associated with crime, scheduled economic offences and the properties of such fugitives who run away from the country.

Mentioning the agenda of introducing the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill 2018, Piyush Goyal said that it will deter people from running away from India and those who have run away India to force them to come back and submit themselves to the process of law.

Piyush Goyal further asserted that there have been many instances of economic offenders ran away from country and jurisdiction of Indian Courts and Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill will restrict them. “The current laws have their own limitations in stopping people who flee the country,” he added.

Citing the limitations of existing civil and criminal Provisions in law, he said, “Indian authorities and government are not able to deal with offenders adequately as they flee out of the country and criminal law does not allow us to impound their property.” In the Budget 2017-18, the then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced the intentions of the government to introduce legislative changes or even a new law to confiscate the assets of absconders,” he added.

“To begin with, we have kept a threshold of Rs 100 crore to be brought within the provisions of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill 2018 so that we can focus on big economic offenders,” he noted.

Piyush Goyal also informed Rajya Sabha that the government has also ensured that unless the person comes back and submits himself to the laws of India the person will be disentitled from defending any civil claim in any other forum. “If at any point of time in the course of the proceedings prior to the declaration as a fugitive economic offender, if the person returns to India and submits to the appropriate jurisdictional court the proceedings under the law may be terminated by the special court,” he concluded.

Importantly, the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill 2018 was tabled in the parliament on Monday this week.

BACKGROUND:

Eradicating corruption from the country is the prime agenda of Prime Minister Modi led central government. Therefore, PM Modi led government in March this year approved ‘Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill’ which will empower law enforcement agencies to confiscate the assets of economic absconders till they submit to the jurisdiction of law in India.

Salient features of the Bill:

• Application before the Special Court for a declaration that an individual is a fugitive economic offender;
• Attachment of the property of a fugitive economic offender;
• Issue of a notice by the Special Court to the individual alleged to be a fugitive economic offender;
• Confiscation of the property of an individual declared as a fugitive economic offender resulting from the proceeds of crime;
• Confiscation of other property belonging to such offender in India and abroad, including benami property;
• Disentitlement of the fugitive economic offender from defending any civil claim; and
• An Administrator will be appointed to manage and dispose of the confiscated property under the Act.

If at any point of time in the course of the proceeding prior to the declaration, however, the alleged Fugitive Economic Offender returns to India and submits to the appropriate jurisdictional Court, proceedings under the proposed Act would cease by law. All necessary constitutional safeguards in terms of providing hearing to the person through counsel, allowing him time to file a reply, serving notice of summons to him, whether in India or abroad and appeal to the High Court have been provided for. Further, provision has been made for the appointment of an Administrator to manage and dispose of the property in compliance with the provisions of law.

Implementation strategy and targets:

In order to address the lacunae in the present laws and lay down measures to deter economic offenders from evading the process of Indian law by remaining outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts, the Bill is being proposed. The Bill makes provisions for a Court ('Special Court' under the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002) to declare a person as a Fugitive Economic Offender.

A Fugitive Economic Offender is a person against whom an arrest warrant has been issued in respect of a scheduled offence and who has left India so as to avoid criminal prosecution, or being abroad, refuses to return to India to face criminal prosecution.

A scheduled offence refers to a list of economic offences contained in the Schedule to this Bill. Further, in order to ensure that Courts are not over-burdened with such cases, only those cases where the total value involved in such offences is 100 crore rupees or more, is within the purview of this Bill.