66% businesses surveyed paid a bribe in the last 12 months: Survey

Around 66 per cent of business firms surveyed across 159 districts admitted that they paid bribes in the last 12 months, a report by online platform LocalCricles said on Sunday.

The survey, which received 18,000 responses, found that 54 per cent were forced to pay bribes while 46 per cent paid voluntarily to expedite the process.

"As many businesses would vouch anonymously, bribes remain a way of life when wanting to get government departments to speed up the permit or compliance process, even getting duplicate copy of the authority license or anything to do with property matters. 66 per cent of businesses surveyed paid a bribe in the last 12 months," the report said.

Only 16 per cent of businesses surveyed claimed that they always managed to get work done without paying a bribe and 19 per cent said they "did not have a need" to do so.

"Of businesses that paid bribes in the last 12 months, 54 per cent were forced to do so, while 46 per cent paid it for timely processing. This kind of bribery amounts to extortion where permits, supplier qualification, files, orders, payments are routinely held up when dealing with Government agencies," the report said.

According to the report, bribery paid by businesses continues to take place despite computerisation in several places, and behind closed doors away from CCTVs.

Businesses admitted to paying a bribe in the last 12 months to different types of entities for qualifying as a supplier, secure quotations and orders and collect payments.

"Though initiatives like the Government eProcurement marketplace are good steps to reduce corruption, there are still openings to engage in corruption for supplier qualification, bid manipulation, completion certificate and payments," the report said.

Business firms that participated in the survey conducted between May 22 and November 30, 2024, said that 75 per cent of the bribes were paid to officials of departments such as legal, metrology, food, drug, health, etc.

"Many also reported paying bribes to GST officials, pollution department, municipal corporation and power department," the report said.

Business entities in the survey shared that the number of bribery transactions and aggregate value of bribes paid by businesses surveyed reduced in the last 12 months.

Commenting on the issue of anti-corruption, Deloitte India, Partner, Aakash Sharma said that Many organisations tend to believe that maintaining the bare minimum in terms of policies and procedures could result in no regulatory scrutiny and penal actions.

"While this approach may have been sufficient in the past, recent upward trends in corruption cases, combined with the changing regulatory landscape require organisations to relook at their compliance framework and establish a robust anti-corruption programme," Sharma said. PTI