1.) How can we change the attitude of common mass about the system of getting services from government offices by paying extra money i.e. bribe to them? Every legal resident of India is already paying taxes to government for getting these basic healthcare, education and judicial facility. On a estimated scale, average household income in India is INR 250,000 and 10 per cent of which is tax deductible. It means, on an average INR 7300(considering that 250000 comes in the slab of 10 per cent tax deduction) from each household go to government for providing them the fundamental amenities. A chunk of it is used to pay salaries to these government employees. Now when we are already paying them for the services they are providing, why should we pay them extra bucks!!
2.) Will it ever be possible to change the action of politicians and authorities sitting in helm of governance? A good article which had been really popular on Facebook about corrupt practices of the party- which has been in government most of the times- since Independence has been given in the link provided here. Definitely,the things said in that article could be false as there is no evidence, but we all know there is a good possibility these rumored facts to be true.
The above two- certainly pessimistic- questions would make anyone think that nothing can be changed. It took me 1 week to think about the ways which can curb the menace of money laundering; how many years would it take for the whole India to think and act on the issue! I believe the process will be really slow and will evolve with time when people will be better educated; and more than being educated, when they will better know how to go against the corrupt practices in the system in feasible ways which would have no harm on their personal or professional life. Following paragraphs address the solutions for different segments that are somehow, directly or indirectly are the parts of money laundering in India.
Firstly, I would like to address the common man of this nation. You think that you can only make expression of grief on the money laundering and black money, when you see in reports on news channels about how much money has been put by some smart devils minds of India into his offshore accounts? Answer is definitely no! Technology has been transforming the way we live and it can transform the way we can lodge a complaint against a corrupt official, making high authorities to take an action. For example, in Haryana state, there is a toll-free helpline number (18001802022 )where you can put your complaints.[link to State Vigilance Bureau, Haryana] .Vigilance bureau of any state get paid for this job of catching the corrupt officials red handed. Don’t make them sit idle doing nothing. ;)
Common man should be aware of using the RTI act for his benefit. It is the government’s duty to give them a right platform. In many states like Andhra Pradesh[link to Andhra Pradesh Information Commision], Bihar, Punjab etc, good steps has been taken to provide a platform to general public to acquire information available in public domain. A Best Practice example is ‘Jaankari Call Center’ setup in Bihar. It has enabled information attainment by Right To Information act easier for the people of Bihar. Jaankari is not only a helpline for RTI related queries but it has grievance redress mechanism also for those who have had a bad experience while filing a request in person.Best of the fact, it has a dedicated helpline for the filing of RTI requests.Jaankari Helpline in Bihar has empowered masses to make information requests from the far unreachable regions of the state. It saves a lot of money and time of the appellant also thus making it convenient for each and everybody to get the required information. Definitely general public can also escape the unfriendliness of officers in this way.It has just got its 100,000th caller in December 2011 since its inception in 2007.This number could have been reached earlier if a campaign to aware people would have been on place.
Second, what politicians or big corporates can do? Can we expect anything from them? In 1970, Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman said that, the Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits. Most of the time in each corporate house’ Mission and Vision, this statement remain disguised, no matter what they say. In such developments, any smart company will do anything to gain profit whether the profit making action is against the environmental condition or against the economic condition of the nation. I personally don’t think it a good thing to preach them anything. It is the action of government only which can control anything bad happening in a business. For example, if there is large scale mining activities are taking place in Yamuna river, government/High court may ban the activities. Similarly, it is the job of government to control the money laundering. In our country where economic growth devastation and terrorist activities are two such important points to halt our progress against becoming a wholesome nation, it is really important for government to not play role of mischief-makers.
Third and concluding role in controlling the money laundering activities is in the hand of Banking System of our country. It is a combined responsibility of economists, parliamentarians, bureaucrats and specially reserve Bank and bankers of India to device mechanism which can monitor and reduce the outflow of money from India to abroad. Definitely, India is one of the nation following Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations in a blameless way. But can we do something more than this to make people believe in whole economics fundamentals, which are under doubts because of happenings of money laundering and black money creation? We need to resolve the technical inadequacies in the outlawing of money laundering. We need to have in place a framework suitable to the local needs of India for the repossession processes of laundered money. There is a need of identification and also the secure digitization of documents related to business accounts. At last I wish Financial Intelligence Unit, India to have on place the awareness about their obligations towards the nation and a digital tool much more efficient than the WebFountain(about which I mentioned in the first post on Money Laundering) to identify the suspicious financial transaction activities. ;)
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