I came across an article in a newspaper discussing a working paper by Kaushik Basu Chief Economic Adviser to Government of India on legalising the act of bribing. The newspaper report shocked me but I didn’t want to base my opinion only on a newspaper report. So I downloaded the original working paper from the Government of India website. After reading it I’m convinced that Kaushik Basu is far removed from reality and living in some utopian world. The entire premise of this paper is very theoretical and based on some flawed assumptions. The paper assumes that the person giving bribes actually wants to co-operate with the government authorities. Even if he/she does co-operate and go to the police to complain about the bribe being paid. What if police doesn’t register a complaint or act on it or ask for a bribe?
Just like many other initiatives this is yet another example of wasting tax payers’ money on such reports.
