Corruption benefits influential segments, marginalises poor

LAHORE: Corruption cannot be eradicated through lip service, workshops, symposiums, and seminars. It is a menace that benefits the influential segments of society while further marginalising the lives of the downtrodden.

Businesses complain of corrupt practices by bureaucracy; the bureaucrats accuse traders of evading taxes. The encroachers react violently when encroachments are removed. They feel cheated because they pay the rent for these encroachments to the authorities.

If one evades taxes this is usually done by bribing tax officials who neglect the tax default. If the evader is nabbed he is punished or fined by the tax officials of that area who tolerated the evasion in the first place; they are not made accountable.  To deal with corruption, the accountability has to be double-edged.

Corruption pervades in Pakistan because the influential segments of society resist action by honest bureaucrats. During the second tenure of PML-N, the then FBR chairman Moinuddin Khan personally conducted a raid on a famous fabric shop at Liberty market Lahore.

The stocks recovered from the shop were worth millions of rupees, much beyond the tax profile of the shop. The shop was sealed, but when the traders protested, the decision was reversed.

The FBER chairman resigned in protest and a few months later died of heart attack. This discouraged the honest and dedicated bureaucrats.

Now shops openly display huge stocks on their premises and hardly pay any tax. They pay millions in rent or own properties worth billions of rupees, and nobody dares to confront them.

The businessmen do not want their stocks to be documented by the tax officials; don’t want their accounts to be audited, and are against the attachment of their accounts if they fail to file tax returns in time. They ignore the notices sent to them in this regard by the tax machinery.

Now the corrupt officials are convinced that everyone in business is corrupt and they want their due share in this regard. The honest businessmen who keep immaculate records are also forced to pay or get ready for inflated demands.

There are some corrupt practices that benefit only the bribe taker. When a family takes an ailing patient to a public hospital, they have to even pay petty bribes to get a wheelchair or stretcher for the patient.

They also have to bear the additional expenses of medicines demanded by the staff during an operation, and there is no mechanism to verify the use of all of these drugs.

It is indeed regrettable that Police, FBR and judiciary are among the top institutions that are perceived as the most corrupt in the country according to various surveys conducted by Transparency International.

The present chief justice of Lahore High Court has in fact taken action against corrupt judicial officials and removed many from duty. His efforts are paying dividends, but no such action has been initiated against police and tax officials.

Petty corruption in police, revenue and agriculture departments impacts the poor mostly. It makes the lives of poor miserable.

The corruption in award of contracts impacts the quality of growth of the country. It results in low quality infrastructure. It however makes rich accumulate more wealth.

Since the society has become immune to corruption. Tax evaders openly show their wealth. They ride luxury cars, live in posh localities, and own multi-storey buildings, fearing neither the government nor the public.

The flaunting of ill-gotten wealth is a source of inspiration for others. They also do away with legal ways and adopt informal methods to gather money. This is the reason that the proportion of the informal economy is increasing rapidly. There is a need for serious efforts to eradicate corruption and save the society from total collapse.