I recently had to present about the economic benefits of corruption. I have grown up knowing that corruption is an evil and it took me a while to adjust or accept the fact that corruption has benefits too. If I'm not convinced how can I convince the judges.
Thus,
though morality of corruption always pricks us the economic development and
benefits cannot be ignored. Ideally, if corruption is legalized, transparency
can be bought into the flow of money. Investments will improve and India will
be on road to prosperity. As we all know, the one who has money will not want
to part with it unless there is a benefit attached. And the price he pays for
this benefit ensures money can flow back into the economy. Placing the entire
population in a single system will only encourage corruption. The rich would
like to travel by business class and not the economy class. The current system
in India is like an economy class for the entire population. This is what
drives people to subvert the system to make sure their job is done. And those
who have the means will pay their way through. There is a talk of a growing
rich-divide. India was never a socialist country. History tells us that
socialism never worked. USSR (doesn’t exist today), Cuba, and North Korea have
all struggled to even give basic necessities to their population. What is the
point of such a socialistic ideology then? People can argue that a great man
like Narayana Murthy still travels economy class. But that is just one in a
million and cannot be a benchmark for the entire population in this case. As a
kid, I have seen my parents buy a general ticket when reservation was not
available and then negotiate with the TTR for a ticket, and pay him some
amount. This system has been on for many years until the GOI decided to bring
this money into the system. Minister of Railways, Shri Nitish Kumar introduced
the Tatkal system during his tenure (2001-2004) ensuring that the bribe amount
paid to TTR was channeled into the Government coffers by the way of Tatkal
charges. This is an excellent example of legalization of Corruption. Why can’t
we have fixed charges for speeding up all transactions? Tatkal was introduced
for the last minute travelers who did not want to book ahead of time and they
were charged extra for this added service. Similarly, the “speed money” given
as bribes can be standardized and brought back into the system.
The
black money that is stashed abroad by the super rich can likewise be brought
into the system. Few years ago, Income Tax Department tried to encourage this
by giving all black money holders and option of bringing the money back into
the country at a flat 30% tax rate. However, this failed to find many takers.
If IT department were the only agency which could have filed proceedings
against them, then they would have considered this a legal immunity. However,
in India we have various agencies and bodies which regulate the affairs
pertaining to black money. Legal immunity must be provided from all these
bodies and not just the IT department. Relaxation must be provided under FEMA,
CBDT and by agencies like Economic Offences Wing etc. Also, the people holding
black money must be provided immunity from litigation. Unless this is done,
there is no way anyone is going to try and bring back the money stashed abroad.
End of the day, from the Rs. 100 that I have, I may part with Re. 1 to a
beggar, but for the rest of the Rs. 99, I would want to spend them on my
convenience.
