Everybody
does it
JUNE
25, 2019
This is why when a few years earlier, a politician from South
Punjab said, “Corruption is our right,” very few people were shocked. He meant
that after spending millions to get elected, it was only fair that he and his
colleagues were allowed to loot the people. He should also have said that
politicians should be allowed to indulge in gas and electricity theft, so they
could make millions and were able to win the next elections.
Perhaps, the most common misconception in the country is that
only government employees indulge in corruption. Private-sector employees are
equally corrupt. A purchaser in a private company is as likely to ask for
commission as his counterpart in a government department. An engineer in a
privately owned company almost always asks for a commission (usually 10 per
cent) for approving contracts or allowing bills to be forwarded to the accounts
department for payment. But these same corrupt Pakistanis become model citizens
when they work in foreign countries. They would never drive through a red light
or break a law. This is because they know they would never be able to pay
bribes to law enforcement officials in developed countries (unlike in Pakistan,
where almost everyone can be bought for a price).
The most common
explanation given by those who take bribes and commissions is that they are
underpaid and their salaries are insufficient to support their families
(usually having four children, at least). This may be true for government employees,
but it doesn’t explain why private-sector employees also do so.
Another reason given by such people is “Everyone does it.” Ask a
factory or a restaurant owner why he indulges in sales tax or income tax
evasion, the answer is “Everyone does it.”
I knew a very rich man who was sentenced and fined heavily in
Zia’s martial law days for evading excise duty. He was never caught under
civilian administrations because he used to give money freely to all those in
government departments he had to deal with.
When asked, why he felt the need to cheat the government despite
being so wealthy, he said, “Everyone does it.”
For years afterwards, he used to believe that he, alone, had
been victimised and other factory owners got off because they were well
connected or had paid those who had caught him.
It never occurred to him that others were honest and had always
paid the duties and taxes.
Before the KESC was privatised, its linemen would reduce the
speed of electric meters so the bill would show less than a third of the actual
consumption. They would even give illegal direct connections (known as “kunda”
connections), a practice still rampant in slums and outlying areas. The poor
there are charged a good amount for doing so. Those were the days when a
telephone connection was obtained after many years.
Men and women would celebrate when they were finally able to get
telephones installed in their houses. Telephone linemen would charge a fee to
ensure your telephone bill did not exceed Rs 200 a month (despite hundreds of
calls made to many foreign countries). I know many such people. When asked why
they did it (as all religions expressly forbid theft of all kinds), they would
say, “Everyone does it.”
When an Electric Inspector, Labour Department official, Income
Tax officer or Customs Appraiser asks for payment, despite no evidence of
malpractice or evasion and the victim protests (s)he says, “Everyone does it,
you’ll have to pay as well, or we’ll make life hell for you.”
An environment where one is already struggling to make both ends
meet actually encourages and promotes tax evasion (as bribes have to be paid
even when there is no evasion or malpractice). Everyone does it.
The writer is an engineer, a former visiting lecturer at NED Engineering
College
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