The government makes passport details of borrowers taking loans of Rs 50 crore and more have been mandatory to ensure a swift action in case of fraud and prevent fraudsters from fleeing the country. 

The finance ministry on Saturday said passport details will be made mandatory for availing loans more than Rs50 crore from state-run banks as it looks to tighten procedures following the detection of the Rs12,636 crore scam at Punjab National Bank.

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

The decision comes at a time the government is struggling 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.

This is a preventive step to avoid the flight of economic offenders and banks to collect passport details of all new borrowers of loans in excess of Rs 50 crore. For all existing loans of over Rs 50 crore, banks have been asked to collect passport details of borrowers within 45 days.Financial Service secretary Rajeev Kumar tweeted.