Director’s passport info must

Corporate affairs ministry’s new move to fight defaulters

To prevent loan defaulters like Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi leaving the country, the corporate affairs ministry is looking at a proposal to seek passport details of all individuals, who have been permitted to serve as directors on the board of companies.

Sources said that prospective Director Identification Number (DIN) seekers will have to submit passport details for obtaining the eight-digit unique ID provided by the ministry.

DIN is a unique identification number allotted to an individual who is appointed as a director of a company.

The DIN application form will be suitably modified to include the passport detail column, sources said, adding that it is contingent upon the proposal being approved by the ministry. Earlier, the finance ministry had said that passport details of borrowers taking loans of `50 crore and more have been made mandatory to ensure a swift action in case of fraud and prevent fraudsters from fleeing the country.

Sources in the corporate affairs ministry said that in case, a person with DIN does not have a passport, the ministry plans to obtain a certificate in the form of declaration that the person does not have a passport.

Passport details in the digital warehouse will help authorities take timely action and check fraudsters from fleeing the country. In absence of passport details, banks were hamstrung in taking timely action to prevent defaulters from flying out of the country.

Last week, the government tabled a Bill seeking to confiscate assets of absconding fraudsters.