‘Mumbai among top 5 to bribe govt officials’
Mumbai is among the top five cities in the country in terms of bribes paid to government officials between 2010 and 2015, according to IPaidABribe.com, a portal set up by Bengaluru-based Janaagraha, a non-profit.
Article Courtesy: The Indian Express
The web portal crowdsources reports from the common man on retail corruption and bribery in the country, which are not always reported to the ACB. These first person anecdotes range from bribes paid for police verification for passport applications to those for property registration.
In the list, Mumbai comes fourth after Bengaluru, New Delhi and Hyderabad with at least 1924 bribes paid by citizens to various government departments amounting to Rs 8.96 crore.
The top five departments in Mumbai that have accepted bribes in the last five years include police (706) customs,excise and service tax (308), transport (165), stamps and registration (119) and municipal services (110). The customs, excise and service tax department in Mumbai, according to IpaidABribe.com data, have most bribes at Rs 2.41 crore, followed by stamps and registration department at Rs 1.25 crore.
In 2015 alone, at least 262 instances of bribery have been reported by Mumbaikars. According to IpaidABribe.com, over 1.05 lakh reports of bribery have been reported across 1071 cities in India between August 2010 and September 2016. While the total number of bribes paid is 35743, the total amount is over Rs 2800 crore.
A report by EY Fraud Investigation & Dispute Services on White Collar crime in India Thursday said that bribery and corrupt practices happen widely in business in India. The country ranks 17th in the top 29 markets which consider bribery and corruption to be an ongoing challenge.