Public
officials in India may be cornering as much as Rs.92,122 crore ($18.42
billion), or 1.26 per cent of the GDP, through corruption, says a new book by
two economic experts. Bibek Debroy and Laveesh Bhandari estimate on the
strength of Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) figures that most bribery is
accrued from the transport industry, real estate and “other public services”.
Pegging the figure of bribery from “other public services” at Rs.14,594 crore
($2.92 billion), the authors say this is mainly accounted for by leakages from
official welfare programmes.
Real
estate and related business services involving registration of property and
stamp duties account for Rs.12,534 crore ($2.5 billion) in corruption, says
their book “Corruption in India: The DNA and RNA” ( Konark Publishers). Bribery
at multiple checkpoints and by revenue officials, police and customs in the
transport sector generate Rs.11,267 crore ($2.25 billion) in corruption, the
authors say. The book estimates bribery amount from illegal mining, theft from
public mines and licensing at Rs.9,578 crore ($1.91 billion).
This
is followed by corruption in government procurement (Rs.9,144 crore or $1.82
billion). Bribe taking by inspectors, police and local bodies in unregistered manufacturing
totals Rs.6,600 crore ($1.32 billion). Other sectors which enrich corrupt
public servants are agriculture, forestry and logging, fishing, registered
manufacturing, electricity, gas and water supply, construction, trade, hotels
and restaurants, railways, storage, communication, and banking and insurance.
Debroy is a professor with Delhi’s Centre for Policy Research. Bhandari heads
Indicus Analytics, monitoring the performance of the Indian economy.
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