Fact Check: 54% Indians admit of paying bribes to get work done in govt offices, shows Indian Corruption Survey 2018

New Delhi: When Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation, the main aim was to bring down the black money trading and eradicate corruption levels across the country. However, a recent survey suggests that not much has changed and bribes still continue to be the best possible way to get a work done in government offices. The Indian Corruption Survey 2018 conducted in collaboration of Transparency International India and LocalCircles shows that 54 per cent Indians have admitted to pay bribes in the past one year to get their work done. Surprisingly, the numbers have increased as figure for those admitting to have paid a bribe in government offices was 45 per cent in 2017. There has been a whopping 11 per cent increase in bribery in the past one year. Though the Central government claims that strict measures are been taken to curb bribery in the country, 58 per cent of the citizens said their states had no anti-corruption helpline. Whereas as many as 33 per cent said they were not aware of the presence of such helpline in their states. Another reason for currency ban was to push digital transactions in the country. Nevertheless even this dream too did not fulfil as cash was the prime mode of bribery. “It seems cash is still the primary mode of bribery because around 39% paid cash as bribery, followed by bribes through agents (25%), bribes in kind (1%). Police authorities have been paid the most bribes by the citizens in the last year (25%), followed by municipal corporations, property registrations and other authorities (electricity board, transport office, tax office etc.),”the survey report said. When asked about government’s effort to curb corruption in the country, 34 per cent of the citizens said that states have taken steps to curb corruption, but these have not been effective. Coming to states, the babus of Uttar Pradesh government offices were found to be the most corrupt with 79 per cent of the respondents from the state saying that they had to pay a bribe in the past one year to get their work done in government offices. Uttar Pradesh was followed by Punjab at 56 per cent and Madhya Pradesh at 50 per cent. States such as Gujarat, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh turned out to be the least corrupt states of India.