Right. Like many, I too decided to cash in on the fall in real estate prices and bought myself an apartment. The registration is still due; so is the possession.  When the developer said I could get my apartment registered, I was very happy.

I called up the builder’s office and asked how much that would cost and the lady from the builder’s office on the phone told me the stamp duty cost.  Apart from the registration amount, I need to keep aside Rs.25000 towards the legal fees, she said.

I raised my eye brows because I thought Rs.25000 is way too expensive a legal fee. I am not buying a company for god’s sake! I am just buying a decent apartment.
I asked her to explain why it is so expensive and also wanted to know what it covers. She said it covers the lawyer’s fees in preparing my sale agreement and said it also covers the miscellaneous amount. I asked her for a break up on how much goes to the lawyer and how much goes towards the miscellaneous part.

She said Rs.10000 goes to the lawyer and the balance Rs.15000 is miscellaneous.
This cracked me up. I laughed out loudly – this was the first time in my life that I heard something as this where “miscellaneous is expensive than the actual part”.

I am sure she must have noticed exclamation marks all around my head even through the phone!. I collected my composure, sat down and asked why the miscellaneous part was higher than the actual part? She said, ‘’Sir, you know about it.’’ She obviously took me for granted.

I said, ‘’Madame, honestly I don’t know about it’’ and requested her to explain to me. She said, Sir… (pause)… Sir… (pause)…. Sir, miscellaneous is towards bribe for Sub-Registrar.

Now things started heating up and I said, No way I am paying this bribe. I got very furious on how the system is operating. She said, I could not avoid this if I wanted to get my apartment registered without any delay.

She also said, if I didn’t pay up, then they (builders) would have trouble in getting work done from the Sub-Registrar’s office for other clients. She requested that I pay this amount to ensure their relationship with the Sub-Registrar wass kept alive.

Firstly, why should I pay bribe to get my apartment registered which I have bought with my hard earned money? Secondly, going by what that poor lady said, why should I pay up to ensure they maintain good relationship with the Sub-Registrar?  What do I get out of it?

Why is a layman targeted like this? The development where I have bought the apartment has close to 600 apartments. A simple math throws light on how much this Sub-Registrar makes illegally from bribes. Where does this bribe go? Who all get to share this? These are the questions that are bothering me as I have stopped worrying about how I will escape paying this bribe.

The structure appears to have a bureaucratic core. The bureaucracy which was set up to control economic life has created the incentives for individual and institutionalized corruption. It’s a classic case of fence eating the crop.

The time has come to dismantle the bureaucracy as that would be the first step to fix the problem of corruption in India. This would lead to transparency and abolish the bribes that political parties could extract through the bureaucratic machinery. It will have a productive effect – that of getting bribe-seeking thugs out of political system in India.
Isn’t India’s development critically dependent on reducing corruption?
As I ponder, all I can say is “God Bless My Country”!

Income tax department claimed that it has found evidence of Rs 400 crore hawala transactions linked to former Jharkhand CM

Madhu Koda, TV reports say. ( Watch Video )

The department had claimed on Saturday that its had found evidence of Koda’s hawala transaction and investments after searches were conducted at Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Lucknow, Nasik, Ranchi, Chaibasa and Jamshedpur.

IT authorities added the department will also initiate the unlocking of seized lockers at various places of the former Chief Minister and his associates.

“Some documents showed about Rs 100 crore in foreign exchange being sent by hawala transactions to Dubai, Thailand and Malayasia,” tax officials said after the searches on Saturday.

The searches were held after the Enforcement Directorate registered a case against Koda and his associates Sanjay Choudhary and Vinod Kumar Sinha on October 9 on charges of making huge illegal investments abroad.

The ED had filed an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), which is equivalent to an FIR, before the Prevention of Money Laundering Act court in Ranchi against Koda and eight others.

The countrywide raids by Income Tax teams on the houses of Madhu Koda and his associates continued for the second day on Sunday and he is expected to be summoned soon for “detailed questioning”.

The IT department will issue notices to Koda and others for “detailed questioning” after the completion of scrutiny of the seized material, official sources said in New Delhi.

Koda was chief minister between September 2006 and August 2008. Currently an Independent member of the Lok Sabha, Koda had held the mines portfolio twice in two governments, led by Arjun Munda between 2003 and 2006.