Income Tax Dept Urges Not To Pay Bribe
Saw this in the Hindustan Times epaper.
Archive for the ‘Corruption’
India Up the Honesty Ladder
The latest report by Transparency International (TI), the Berlin-based anti-corruption watchdog, has a surprise. India ranks No. 70 on its Corruption Perception Index (CPI) out of 163 nations. It is a distinct improvement over last year, when India stood at No 88. For the first time, India has reversed its downward slide on the CPI, and a reason for this is probably the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
If not for RTI we might have still ranked the same
Vice-Admiral (retd) RH Tahiliani, president of TI-India, said the marginal improvement was welcome but there was a long road ahead. “Indians give Rs 21,000 crore every year as bribes,” he said.
He credited the RTI Act with bringing in more transparency in the government. “That was objective of the Act,” said OP Kejriwal, information commissioner in the Central Information Commission.
According to the CPI, India has the lowest perceived level of corruption among South Asian nations. Bangladesh, ranked 156, is the most corrupt, followed by Pakistan at 142 and Sri Lanka at 84.
21,000 crore of bribe is a huge amount. Knowing this would your answer to this question be any different?
I wonder is RTI the only reason or there are other reasons? Have we suddenly achieved higher morals? Is the new generation different than the old? Are they willing to fight longer?
Whatever the reason is, it is good to see this improvement.