Monday, 17 October 2022 | Krishan Kalra
Krishan Kalra
GUEST COLUMN
We all complain about corruption. Corruption as a way of life, corruption having pervaded all echelons of the government, about politicians being corrupt, babus being corrupt and so on. Few however pause to think that corruption begins with us as individuals.
I want to build a small house. So I tell a broker to find me a plot of land. The broker does some running around, assured of collecting two per cent from each side and shows me several plots. When the price is discussed, I am told that any deal above Rs 50 lakh must have an advance clearance (not required now as relevant rules already changed) from the Income Tax authorities. This clearance is not given easily, even if the price is right; so the broker and the seller suggest that I sign the agreement for Rs 35-40 lakh and pay the balance in cash. In fact they would be happier if I could somehow make three or four different agreements of Rs five lakh each and shell out the balance in hard cash. They also tell me that by doing so I would gain substantially as I would be paying significantly lower registration charges since these are based on the purchase price. Since I don’t want to wait and I can’t shout loud enough to be heard, I give in and take the easy way out. I convert a few lakhs of my hard earned white money to black and make the deal. I now cheat the government on the registration fee and later wealth tax (thankfully gone now); the seller in turn cheats on capital gains tax; the broker gets his full due but again pays income tax only on what is officially given to him by cheque. That’s not corruption, is it? “Mere convenience,” I justify myself.
Now, if some of us are brave enough to stand up and say no to such transactions, probably more and more deals would become above board and the government will start getting full taxes. This might even lead to a further reduction in the registration charges eventually. After purchasing the plot, I have to start construction. My architect tells me that I can cover 70 per cent of the ground area on each floor, but my wife and I are greedy and feel we need another 200 square feet; so the architect tells us that he would construct the additional area and “fix” the corporation officials to get approval. Some more “convenience”! Construction over, we need electricity and water connections. For my two window air conditioners and assorted geysers, heaters, irons etc. I need a load of 10KW. This is not possible due to the power shortage, and furthermore the charges for 10KW load are too high. So the DESU inspector suggests an easy way out. He puts the cable and meters for 10 KW, and officially records it as a 3 KW connection. Of course the inspector must get his chai-pani; and I give it to him. Same thing happens with water. Water is in short supply and the inspector, with a little tip, can put a pipe three-fourth of an inch thick instead of the mandatory half-an-inch thick one. If I paid a little more they would even look the other way while I dig a borewell (not so easy now). Did I hear some one say corruption? Hey, this is only mutual back scratching.
We talk of corruption in the Income Tax department, but on whose bidding is it there? No businessman wants his accounts under the microscope – probably more for saving trouble and discomfort and not so much to cheat on taxes. He, therefore, tells his chartered accountant to be a little nice to the ITO and get his assessment completed expeditiously. With the income tax laws being complicated, even the most honest businessman’s accounts have holes. The ITO – and I am holding no brief for him – knows he can pick on these and demands his fee. We are glad to fork it out as it will save us the bother of having to go there and explain all the entries.
It used to be the same with in the DGTD (thank God it was wound up) or banks or the CCIE (again past tense) or the SIDCs, mainly because no one wants to fight the system. Even the gods are not spared. After spending hours in the queue for a darshan at a prominent shrine nobody wants to spend more time in yet another long queue for buying prasadam, especially when, with a little extra payment, you can get it almost immediately. I don’t know who is more corrupt – me paying the extra amount or the little guys who spend all day standing in the queues and collecting prasadam for re-sale? If I wasn’t too lazy to stand in the second queue they would have no customers and would be out of business.
We often talk about corruption starting with the politicians, ministers etc. Politicians are no different from the rest of us. But they spend a lot of money fighting elections and must therefore recover it when in power. So, who started the whole thing? It is the age-old ‘chicken and egg’ story but we are all involved in it and none of us is doing anything to get out of the morass, none of us wants to stand up and fight for our rights, none of us has the time to wait for our turn, none of us wants to be deprived of any creature comfort, any prime locations. And life goes on.
(A veteran of the corporate world, the author now does only voluntary work in various spheres. Views expressed are personal)
