Amidst serious noise over corruption at various places, the Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said that India is not ‘the most corrupt’ country in the world. However, he did admit that corruption is growing in the country.
“You should not imagine that India is the most corrupt country,” the Finance Minister said while addressing a session during Golden Jubilee Celebration of the Central Vigilance Commission on Wednesday. He quoted a report where it has been said that business in Europe is estimated to spend $162 billion every year bribing officials, politicians, and Government just to do business. Although he admitted that there is corruption but added, “Open the pages of Economist, read first two pages, you will find instances of corruption in every country.”
He also mentioned that the scale of corruption In India is growing because the size of economy pie is growing. There are more business opportunities, and there are more stake holders beside there is more competition now.
Meanwhile, concerned by regulator action against corporate houses, the Finance Minister suggested intervention by the regulators must be only in exceptional cases. “Regulator or any arm of the regulator must intervene and I urge that they do so only on the basis of gross violation or gross excesses or if there is clear case of criminality,” he advised.
He also said that if any non-criminal deviation is investigated or regulated by regulator, the regulator will simply be over burdened by work and regulation will fail. “See what happened to our criminal courts. We are so frightened by the law that it is slowing down bail and under-trial prisoners languish in jail for many years. Some people served in prison far in excess of their term. Criminal justice system has virtually broken down,” he advised.
Talking about new Companies Act, he said that he strongly supported the structure of the new Act. However, “I would urge caution in the manner in which powers are exercised. I reiterate, we must bring self-regulation, we must enforce compliance, need to heed to board of directors and shareholders and only in exceptional cases should the regulator intervene to punish grave cases of proven criminality,” he said.