In India, unfortunately while it is a known fact that one has to pay under the table money to get your work done or even get a job, the law does not distinguish between the giver and the taker. Despite the fact that it is possible the giver is under duress and hence pays. The law says that if caught both are equally liable and therefore punishment is to be meted out to both. This ensures that the transaction remains a secret. One solution is to decriminalise bribe giving. If this is done, once the transaction is over, the bribe giver can scream blue murder. For now that is not an option, so we will never know how or who contributed to Kripashankar's 321 crores.
Coming closer home, the political establishment is surprised by the “Association For Democratic Reforms (ADR)” comparative report of affidavits filed by sitting MLA's in 2007 and now in 2012.. Unfortunately for the politicians who believed public memory is short, ADR has pulled out their last election affidavits and compared them with the current affidavits. To the common man the results are not surprising, Our politicians businesses have grown so well despite the world facing an economic downturn in the same period, that their personal assets have double or tripled in the same period. Affidavits are a tool which over time will become the gold standard for catching politicians who have assets disproportionate to their known sources of income.
When the Chief Commissioner of Income tax, met the members of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), he was very categorical in making out a case where some industries were not paying tax according to their income. He appealed to the businessmen to come forward and pay their taxes before the IT department visited them. When queried about another big business, “politics” he was cautious. He felt that since the politicians were well connected the department had to be very sure, before acting. He promised action if any one could tell him where the politicians unaccounted cash was stashed.
The ADR comparison of the 2007 and 2012 affidavits reveals these crores very easily. One study mentioned that the politician had to have an income of 40 lacs per month for five years to be able to drive his assets to the current level. This assumes, he has no other revenue expenses and everything earned goes to capital formation. Actually to have a 40 lacs post tax income he should have atleast 60 lacs income a month (7 crores a year), hard to believe. The Economic Times has a report that says the top CEO in India earns an average of 2 crores. This itself should tell you something.
Another candidate in an interview disbelievingly says that this is private business built over the last thirty years. Strangely in 25 years the assets were 5 crores (affidavit of 2007), in the next 5 years they grew by an astonishing 30 crores. Is there a story somewhere, in these figures?
In the revelations of the election affidavits, we have more proof that paper work will spell the death knell of the corrupt. I am sure that the Chief Commissioner of Income Tax can look at this list of affidavits and say “Euraka” I have found more than a 100 crores. Will he be able recover it for the amm admi? Only time will tell.
