Corporate Terrorists of India
S.O.S e - Clarion Of Dalit - Weekly Newspaper On Web
Working For The Rights & Survival Of The Oppressed
Editor: NAGARAJA.M.R… VOL.6 issue.30…… 25/07/2012
Editorial : CORPORATE
CRIMINALS / CORPORATE TERRORISTS / TAX THIEVES
RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL ILLS IN INDIA
In India , a small shop owner to big industrialist have mastered the art of TAX EVASION . their teachers - some corrupt tax officials & auditors. The black money thus created
is causing inflation, feeding the mafia , underworld. Some industrialists lobby ( bribe ) with the government & gets favourable laws enacted. This black money is the main source of funds for political parties , religious bodies & terrorist outfits.
In India , a small shop owner to big industrialist have mastered the art of TAX EVASION . their teachers - some corrupt tax officials & auditors. The black money thus created
is causing inflation, feeding the mafia , underworld. Some industrialists lobby ( bribe ) with the government & gets favourable laws enacted. This black money is the main source of funds for political parties , religious bodies & terrorist outfits.
The recent raids by C.B.I & KARNATAKA LOKAYUKTHA have proved how the tax officials have become multi-millionaires. The sad part is that some of the police officials who are on deputation to C.B.I & LOKAYUKTHA themselves are utterly corrupt.
This scourge can only be cured by corporate accountability intoto. However , all the industrialists , traders who are demanding for more flexible labour reforms , economic reforms , infrastructure , etc are not at all concerned about their own accountability with respect to tax , environment , other laws. The MNCs coming to India are not coming here for best Indian talents or infrastructure alone. In their own countries they are feeling the
heat of strict environment laws , consumer laws , share holder disclosures , corporate accountability. Some of these MNCs are being kicked out of their countries , by it's own people .These MNCs are aware that in India , by greasing the palms environment laws , labour laws , tax laws , etc everything can be flouted , cases in courts can be dragged on for years . share holder disclosures , corporate transparency is minimum.
However when a concerned
citizen complains about the crimes of guilty corporates , organizations or
corrupt public servants , immediate action is not taken. The file is kept
pending for months , years together , allowing the criminals to
manipulate all the evidences , records , ground situations. Finally even if
action is taken guilty will be let out due to favorable evidences , there
are chances that the concerned citizen himself is falsely implicated & put
behind bars . in all such cases all the involved parties must be subjected to
lie detector tests .
Bottomline : development
is a must , it must be all around . but not at the cost of majority to make a
few richer.
Jai Hind. Vande
Mataram.
Your’s sincerely,
Nagaraj.M.R.
Maruti Suzuki HR executive Murder , PRICOL VP MURDER , SATYAM CO FRAUD , SINGUR
AGITATION & GRAZIONO CEO MASS MURDER
- An eye opener to irresponsible corporate India
& GOI
Few Days ago , a senior HR executive of M/s Maruti Suzuki Ltd
, Manesar , Haryana was burnt to death by workers. Few Years back , in
the state of tamilnadu India , some of the sacked laboureres of M/S PRICOL
INDUSTRIES mass lynched & murdered a higher management official , for
sacking them from their jobs. This act of laborers is a heinous crime , illegal
& inhuman act. In India , nowadays the labour movement has been
hijacked by lumpen elements , rowdies , criminals. These criminal elements are
there in the posts of union leaders just to further their self interests rather
than the welfare of the workers whom they represent. These lumpen elements , so
called leaders thrive on controversies & creates disturbances , vitiates
harmonious relations between the management – workers. The company as an
organization needs team work to survive & thrive in business. These labor
leaders even oppose for example OUTPUT BASED PRODUCTION INCENTIVE SCHEME –
which is a win win situation for both the management
& workers. These leaders go to the extent of killing the hen which lays
golden eggs , all for their selfish gains. These rowdy leaders become leaders
just to make money , to make political entry , to shirk-off work , to escape
night shift work , etc. In the midst of these rowdy elements the genuine
concerns of ordinary workers are not at all heard. The ordinary
workers who depend on the organization for their livelihood , who work hard to
earn more incentive , are the ultimate sufferers.
In the same manner , the management of companies must be
sensible to the genuine concerns of it's workers , it must properly
balance the worker's concern & company's position . some of the managements
enforce harsh rules on workers , o.k , the management personnel of those very
same companies function without discipline , misuse company properties , siphons
of company money , take commission from vendors , cheat the
government of tax dues , violate environmental laws , tax laws , labor
laws by bribing officials , etc. Finally this kills the organization
as a whole – the end losers shareholders , lending banks , government & our
economy.
The recent public agitation at singur west
Bengal , India against the TATA NANO project , is nothing but a struggle for
survival by the land loosers. The public of singur are living there since
ancestral times , they fully depend for their livelihood on the vegetables
& other small crops grown there by them. The livelihood , their survival is
at stake. The irresponsible west Bengal government , to favour the corporate
lobby , acquired the lands forcibly dirt cheap & gave it away at dirt
cheap price to TATA'S. why such a cheap , long term lease period
has been given to TATA'S ? The government literally has thrown the land loosers
on street , it didn't bother about their survival nor about their proper
rehabilitation . Basically , TATA'S is a business house , their only intention
is to make profits , more money , not the welfare of people. Why not TATA'S
acquire land in open market ? the acquire of lands by state or central
government for public good like for building dams , roads ,
channels are at least justified however the rehabilitation is more
important. Other than for the projects concerning public good , for all the
projects of private enterprises like pay & use roads , airports , industries
, etc , the lands must be acquired in the open market at market prices . For
some industrialists bid to make riches , lives , livelihood of thousands
should not be sacrificed. It is not alround development. In a democracy , the
voice of the public , locals should be honoured but not the diktats of
ministers or babus in secretariats. The present corrupt system in India leading
to rise of naxalism , underworld , separatist movements are all due to the
government policies since independence till date according to the wisdom (?) of
ministers & babus , totally dishonouring the public voice.
Now , take the case of Graziono CEO mass murder in noida , it is
nothing but fallout of hire & fire policies. Every human being works
for survival , on his meager salary there will be family dependents , all of a
sudden if a person is fired from service , his whole family will be on
streets. O.k , all corporates nowadays preach & breath the mantra of USA ,
for everything be it infrastructure , flexible labour policies , it
compares itself with those prevailing in the USA. Now , the
corporate India is getting infrastructure at dirt free prices ( very high in
the USA ) , has got hire & fire mechanism by employing contract labour ,
very lenient environmental norms , very lenient food & drugs safety rules ,
relaxation in Factory Act , ESI & PF acts , etc add to it the rampant
corruption in all govt departments by which you can get any certificate for a
price.
In the USA , of course there is hire & fire policy , however the
minimum wage levels are also very high , so that during good times workers can
save money for their future. Also , there is social security net to take care
of ousted workers , then why not Indian corporates paying good salary to
workers during good times ? why not corporate India making good contribution to
social security net ? in the USA , there are good infrastructure
facilities they take pride in paying taxes to the government , the
corporate India always lobbies for tax cuts , subsidies , loan waivers , etc.
in the USA the environment norms are very strict , the companies manufacturing
hazardous chemicals which were ousted by the US government have set up shop in
India . Government of USA treats lives of people as precious , where as Indian
government treats lives of it's people as dispensable. In the USA , the food
safety & drugs , medicines safety standards are very high , the drugs ,
high level adulteration food products banned by Government of USA are sold in
the India , this is the difference between government of USA & India , the
way they treat their people's lives. Loan recovery , investor safety norms are
very high in the USA , where as in India , loan defaulters , share holder
swindling , Non Performing Assets is very high. Inspite of all the
strict norms we have seen enron , Xerox debacles in the USA & recent
bank fallouts in the USA. In India with such lax norms , only you can guess.
The lesson here for the government of India is , development must be
allround , must not be at the cost of thousands. Listen to the voice of public
but not to the commands of greedy selfish corporates , lobbies . Do stop
thinking that only babus , IAS officers & minister are brilliant
knowing all and the public people are fools fit to be herded by IAS officers. Do
remember that India is a democracy not a BANANA REPUBLIC.
The lesson for corporate India , aping the USA intoto is O.k ,
but not by parts & bits , follow corporate USA in every aspect of corporate
duties & responsibilities , transparency.
Final word , when it comes to the question of survival , life
, livelihood , it know no bounds . After all STRUGGLE FOR SUVIVAL is a basic
animal instinct , it is a basic human right of every individual .
CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY IN INDIA
CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY Scandals related to the appalling practices of multinational corporations like Union Carbide (now DOW), Enron, Coke, Cadbury, and
others may have shocked the nation and the world in the recent past, but the media rarely highlights corporate crimes that extend to murders, destroying habitats, threatening indigenous cultures, causing disease, contaminating the planet's food supply, poisoning
our groundwater and even destroying the very air we breathe.
CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY Scandals related to the appalling practices of multinational corporations like Union Carbide (now DOW), Enron, Coke, Cadbury, and
others may have shocked the nation and the world in the recent past, but the media rarely highlights corporate crimes that extend to murders, destroying habitats, threatening indigenous cultures, causing disease, contaminating the planet's food supply, poisoning
our groundwater and even destroying the very air we breathe.
You think this is an exaggeration? Well consider this. In Bhopal, India more than 8,000 people died in the first three days after 40 tonnes of lethal gas spilled out from Union Carbide's pesticide factory in December 1984. People woke in their homes to fits of coughing, their lungs filling with fluid. 520,000 people were exposed to poisonous gases. 150,000 victims are chronically ill, and even now one person dies every two days. Union Carbide merged with Dow Chemical Corporation two years ago and has ceased to exist as an entity while the present owners Dow refuse to accept any pending liabilities in Bhopal including clean-up of the abandoned site.
In Kodaikanal, India, Hindustan Lever, a subsidiary of Unilever Plc, an Anglo-Dutch multinational dumped mercury waste from its thermometer factory in the surrounding forests and on an innocent local community. When the scandal was exposed, first the company denied that there was a problem and later fudged facts and figures until the Indian authorities forced them to come clean. Since then Unilever has retrieved and sent back to USA some of the waste for disposal but are shying away from compensating affected workers and further environmental remediation measures.
Monsanto, one of the world's largest pesticide companies, continues to sell its genetically engineered seeds to farmers around the world despite growing evidence of failure of crops like Bt cotton, that has reduced once well-to-do farmers in the developing world to penury and poverty while the threat of contamination of indigenous species by GE
seeds increases everyday.
Bayer AG, a German transnational continues to manufacture and sell phased out pesticides like Methyl Parathion (brand name Folidol/Metacid) in Asia despite an assurance to their European investors and stake holders that they would stop manufacturing these organo-phosphate poisons.
Ship-owning companies (and indeed, their countries) like Bergesen (Norway), and Chandris (Greece) meanwhile, regularly violate international and national laws and dump their hazardous wastes at ship-breaking yards in India, Pakistan, China, Turkey and Bangladesh. The voluntary guidelines issued by International Marine Organisation
are not enough and it is imperative that these guidelines are made mandatory to make the ship-owners liable and responsible.
In the era of globalization, multinational companies increasingly move around assets, products and wastes on a global chessboard to maximize their profits and minimize their costs. These companies are using differences and loopholes in national environmental and health laws for example to export pesticides and destructive technologies to
poorer countries to the detriment of local communities. What international body oversees them, or sets rules for their behaviour, or holds them accountable when they transgress?
It is no longer just the conspiracy theorists who believe our world is increasingly ruled and ruined by large multinational corporations. The World Trade Organisation has supplanted environmental treaties and regulations. Corporations have become accountable only under the rules of a free market, free trade and a free for all on human rights and the environment.
The state of our environment has not improved, in fact it has deteriorated. The gap between the world's rich and poor has widened. Instead of providing developing countries with the tools for sustainable development, corporations have pushed their dirty
technologies and polluting industries on to some of the world's poorest countries.
A recent UN report revealed that Exxon, with $63 billion, is worth more than Peru or New Zealand. General Electric more than Kuwait. Shell is worth more than Morocco or Cuba.
In the past ten years, corporations have not only resisted
environmental challenges, they have lobbied to water down
international treaties and even succeeded in getting countries to
pull out of environmental agreements altogether. They have maintained
their unsustainable practices in all sectors. It is apparent that
more than just voluntary measures are needed to control these
corporations.
A recent report by WWF states that if we continue at current levels
of consumption we will use up all of the Earth's resources within 50
years, and we will need two more planets to meet our resource needs.
We either take urgent action to save the planet, or we get off.
The UN Environmental Programme agrees that "the state of the planet
is getting worse." They say "there is a growing gap between the
efforts of business and industry to reduce their impact on the
environment and the worsening state of the planet."
At the root of our environmental problems are the unsustainable
practices of the corporations that shape our economies. But what is
the good of a short-term healthy economy if we can't drink the water,
eat the foods in the fields or breathe the air?
Current systems of governance in Asia (as elsewhere) are proving to
be deficient against the activities of abusive multinational
corporations. To roll back the excessive powers of corporations and
to pressure governments to check corporate abuse and prosecute
corporate crimes, greater public participation is a must. The Rainbow
Warrior's Corporate Accountability Tour of India is part of a global
movement to change the climate of opinion against abusive
corporations and to turn the tide in favour of fundamental human
rights.
Corporations need to be held accountable for their actions that are
destroying the planet, destroying people's lives around the globe.
There is only one answer. We must stand up to the corporations. Our
governments must agree on international, legally binding rules for
corporate responsibility, accountability and liability: a set of
rules that business must follow, and governments must enforce.
The list of rules is long, but so are the crimes.
The world needs corporations to be held accountable to the following
laws – no matter where they operate in the world. HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
is calling upon the Indian Government to endorse the Bhopal
Principles on Corporate Responsibility, which call on Multinational
Corporations to:
• Accept liability for environmental damage and compensate victims of
pollution;
• Accept liability for the damage, no matter when it happens, what
the cause or who in the corporation is responsible;
• Accept responsibility for damage and injury beyond national borders
including accidents in the oceans and atmosphere;
• Ensure that they do not infringe upon basic human rights;
• Disclose all information regarding releases into the environment to
the public;
• Protect human and social rights including the highest standards for
rights to health care and a clean environment;
• Avoid influence over governments, combat bribery and practice
transparency;
• Allow states to maintain their sovereignty over their own food
supply;
• Implement a precautionary principle and take preventative action
before environmental damages or health effects are incurred; and
• Promote and practice clean and sustainable development
CORPORATE FRAUDS IN INDIA
Corporate fraud is nothing new to india ,
satyam company is just a new addition to it. Satyam co was able to commit such
a huge fraud & keep it under wraps for years goes to prove the honesty ,
integrity of our public servants , government officials belonging to SEBI , RBI
, tax dept , pollution control , labour depts. , etc & the honesty of
auditors & company secretaries. Ofcourse , still there are few honest
people in public service , auditing & company secretaryship , but majority
of them are hand in gloves with corporate criminals. Definitely , this fraud
will also be brushed under the carpet after certain time as other frauds
happened , afterall these frauds are the money spinners for political party
funding , mafia , underworld & other criminal
activities.
IN INDIA , government reports , records , everything can be bought
for a price. During Karnataka lokayukta raids huge wealth amounting crores of
rupees were found with each of the corrupt government officials like police ,
engineers , tax officials , etc. How those government officials with few
thousands of salary earn so much , by compromising with their government duties
, by creating fake government reports , records , etc . The government
& the courts of justice treat those government reports , as sacrosanct like
TEN COMMANDMENTS DIRECTLY FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD HIMSELF.
The CORPORATE CRIMINALS & RICH CRIMINALS buy favourable
government reports , records from the government officials commit bigger crimes
, escapes from legal prosecution by proving their innocence , honesty with the
aid of BOUGHT GOVERNMENT REPORTS & RECORDS. The courts of justice lacks
broad vision , it has only narrow vision as a riding horse's vision is
narrowed . courts of justice is only bothered about technicalities , evidences
, records , it lacks the spirit of QUEST FOR TRUTH , it lacks truth
finding mechanism out of massive reports , records , evidences. The rich
criminals are in a position to manipulate , buy out evidences , government
reports , so definitely they will escape from hook. Today , I can
convincingly state that our legal system is such that , even the terrorists who
attacked our TEMPLE OF DEMOCRACY - THE INDIAN PARLIAMENT will be let free
, when they can fully buyout evidences , reports , etc.
In this backdrop , the corporates technically maintain clean public
image although privately they are frauds , criminals. If anybody makes a
statement of truth against them , those corporate criminals will slap
defamatory & other criminal charges against such persons. The courts of
justice upholds the claims of not the speaker of truth but the corporate
criminals , on the basis of bought evidences , government reports. The
courts doesn't go into the truthfulness of those reports , evidences &
sends the speaker of truth to prison. If any person has made any
complaints of fraud against Satyam Co , two months back he would have
definitely faced criminal prosecution & jail term. As all the records
, auditor reports , company secretary report , reports of ministry
of company affairs , reports of tax departments , everything was in it's
favour. The courts are only bothered about evidences , records which were
all in satyam's favour , the courts are least bothered about quest for truth
& justice. In this manner in India , there are hordes of private companies
where frauds have taken place & taking place & wiil be.
Just recently after Ramalinga raju's own statement , does it became
public that the reports of auditor , company secretary , related governmet
records are all false. Base linbe everything was bought. Do remember that
whether it is SATYAM FRAUD , ENRON SCAM or XEROX SCAM , those were not found ,
revealed either by our investigating agencies or the government. Satyam's Fraud
came to light due to pressure created by the recession , market forces on the
company's promoter Mr.RAMALINGA RAJU & his resultant confession , Enron
scam was unearthed by US investigators in USA during the corse of their
investrigation , It is the same with XEROX Co . till those revealations , those
companies were good , legally abiding cos in govt records. THAT MEANS THEY HAVE
BOUGHT OUT INDIAN LEGAL SYSTEM EFFECTIVELY.
In this manner , in India most of the entrpreneurs small shop
owners to big corporates buy out tax officials , labour department officials ,
pollution control board officials , etc & openly indulge in unfair ,
illegal trade practices , labour practices , legal violations , etc , still go
unpunished , as as per book , the government records they are law abiding ,
persons , corporates.
Entrepreneurs , promoters of big corporations collect public money
either through shares , debentures , bank loans or all . so ideally
public are also stake holders in such companies . The criminal entrpreneures ,
promoters siphon-off companies resources in various ways like
selling company assets to their sister cos at a lesser value or
purchasing assets from sister cos at a higher value , giving loans to sister
cos at low interest rate or taking loans from sister cos at higher interest rate
, etc. in this way they siphon-off resources of public companies / enterprises
with bank loans to their own family owned sister cos. We at e-voice of
human rights of watch are ready to catch such corporate criminals & help
the government , ofcourse subject to conditions , are you ready ?
In india , tax compliance is worse. In our criminal justice system,
there is rigorous imprisonment for a pick-pocketer stealing Rs.10. even the
authorities spend thousands of rupees in legally prosecuting him & the thief
spends a year or more as punishment behind bars. Where as there is no
commensurate investigation nor legal prosecution nor punishment for
corporate thieves , evading tax to the tune of crores of rupees. In contrast,
those tax thieves pay a part of that booty to the ministers & political
parties and get crores of rupees tax exemptions , incentives from the
government. Government is rewarding corporate criminals.
The tax officials of central & state governments are hand in glove with
these corporate criminals & traders. For a price, they are helping
corporates & traders in evading tax. Most of the tax officials are wealthy
& leading luxurious lifestyles , much beyond the scope of their legal
income. The black money thus generated every year by tax evasion , is many
times more than our total annual budget allocation. As a result, all our fiscal
reforms fail & inflation is soaring. This black money is the source of
illegal funding of political parties , terrorist outfits & underworld. It
is a greater threat to national unity & integrity.
Both the central government & karnataka state government have failed
to collect the full , actual tax dues from corporates & traders. As a
result , the governments don't have enough money in their coffers even to
provide basic needs like health care , education , safe drinking water , etc to
the poor & needy. For every Rs.100 tax evaded , one poor patient is dying
without medical care , 10 poor persons lack education , 100 persons don't get
safe drinking water , 100 persons barely survive on a single piece meal per day
, 20 persons starve. Most of The government officials , ministers &
people's representatives who have deliberately failed in their duties of tax
collection & welfare of poor citizens , SHAMELESSLY indulge in luxurious
lifestyle at the expense of poor tax payer . they live in paltial bungalows ,
chauffer driven AC cars , all living food expenses paid by exchequer , dine at
5-star hotels , only drink bottled mineral water , eat non-vegetarian
dishes , drink alcohol sitting before mahatma gandhi's photograph &
preaching mahatma's ideals. Mahatma preached & practiced simple living ,
vegetarianism & he was teto teller , he paid for his expenses from his
earnings . these public servants are parasites , who are making merry at the
expense of tax payer.
Some non government organisations ( NGO) have formed trusts and under the aegis
of those trusts are running educational institutions , hospitals , community halls
, etc , in the name of providing free / subsidised services like education ,
health care , etc to the poor. It is only in record books , they conduct fake
medical camps , self employment training camps . in practice they are running
these educational institutions , hospitals & community halls as
commercial enterprises & collecting huge fees. they are not even
remitting full fees collected to the trust account & swindling the money.
no outsider is allowed to become a member of these NGOs , only their cronies
& their family members are in these trusts.
Numerous NGOs promoted by religious bodies , mutts are swindling public
& government money to the tune of crores of rupees. Nobody dares to
question the heads , pontiffs of these mutts , as at his feet VVIPs ,
ministers fall down. These religious bodies are hot beds of fundamentalism ,
terrorism & mafia. Hwere is the accountability of religious
bodies & political parties in in india ?
Inspite of bringing specific cases to the notice of authorities , they are mum
? hereby , E-VOICE OF HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH offers it's services ( subject to
conditions ) to the governments of india & karnataka , in apprehending the
criminals – tax evaders. Are you ready mr. singh sir & mr.Yediyurappa sir ?
If you are ready to do your duty look into the following cases , take
appropriate action & kindly inform me about the outcome.
WHY MULTINATIONAL
COMPANIES ARE INVESTING IN INDIA?
We condemn the brutal
massacre by police on farmers – who are going to loss all their lands ,
sources.of livelihood for the sake of special economic zones , industrial parks
, etc in various states of India.
In every mega projects
undertaken by government , both the state government & central government
have functioned like REAL ESTATE / COMMISSION AGENTS for the
rich & mighty . the government says it is acquiring lands for development
of industries , for public good. In reality there is only good of rich &
mighty.
For forming S.E.Zs ,
corporates gets speedy single window approvals from government , lands at
concessional rates – lower than market value , soft loans from Indian
banks , tax exemptions for years from the government , dedicated power supply ,
etc , from the government . these corporates are even given free hand to raise
share capital in the Indian market. the government has enacted flexible labour
laws specifically for S.E.Zs , they can hire & fire without bothering to
pay gratuity , etc and they are exempted from providing P.F / E.S.I coverage
to their employees ie they need not worry about the occupational health hazards
of their employees , they can employ them till they are fit & throw them on
streets afterwards. These corporates take our own money, employ our own
people , use our own natural resources & finally take away the net
profits to their home countries – what they give back ? – environmental
pollution , tax evasions , low paid occupational hazardous jobs to locals ,
stock market scams .
During Previous License Regime foreign, investment was not directly welcome in India. As people at that time perceived it as "Neo colonisation" & detested it. There were various restrictions on foreign investments. The local industrialists under monopolistic
environment thrived, who were no way better than day light robberers, of course with a few exception. Under the political patronage, the cunning industrialists looted public money, cheated the government of tax, cheated lending banks & cheated the investors
too. They easily flouted labour laws & made labourers to work in inhuman conditions.
During 1990's under the international pressure India signed GATT & slowly started opening it's economy. Now, from 01/01/05 even product patent has come into force in India. Are MNCs bringing high technology intensive industries to India? No, not at all. They are actually denying sophisticated technologies to India. They are only
bringing the FMCG industries - salt, chips, ketch-up, colas, for which India is a huge home market. They are into services like Hotels, medical care, marketing. In other cases, they are just marketing the products manufactured at their bases in U.S.A. or Europe.
They are not bringing in
new production technologies in the areas like space research, nuclear energy,
bio-technology, pharmaceuticals or pollution control, to India. Also, some MNCs
are relocating their highly polluting industries to India, as they are
subjected to stringent environmental protection standards in their own home
countries. Whereas, In India the Government is highly corrupt & can be
bought for a price. The attractive points for foreign direct investment (FDI)
in India are,
1. There is lack of comprehensive environmental norms.
2. The enforcement of environmental norms is lax.
3. The cost of health coverage, social security net to be provided to the workers exposed to the occupational hazards is less.
4. The cost of compensation to be paid to the persons-who died or suffered damages due to occupational hazards/environmental pollution is meager.
5. The enforcement of labour laws are lax.
6. Public money can be easily raised through lending Banks, primary market within India & the public can be easily cheated.
7. The tax can be evaded through various loopholes like transferring money to holding companies situated at Mauritius or countries which have double taxation avoidance agreement with India.
8. The tax can be evaded, company money can be cheated by lending money to sister / holding concerns at low interest rates or by selling shares, materials to their private companies at low rates or by buying shares, materials from their holding/sister concerns at exhorbitant rates, etc.
9. The corporate governance laws are almost absent in India & it's enforcement nil.
10. Above all, the time can be bought by very slow Indian legal system, if any dispute arise.
11. On top of it, well trained, technically qualified people are available at low rates through contractors.
Just consider the following cases which highlight the apathy, irresponsibility of government of India and emboldened the cunning, MNCs:-
1. The India which boasts of so much scientific/technological advancements, is till date has been unable to provide potable water to it's people. People of west Bengal , Karnataka , Andrapradesh states are forced to drink Arsenic, Fluoride poisoned water.
2. The people living near the mines of R.E.M.P. in Kerala are suffering due to exposure to the radio active materials, Same is the case with the people of Jadaguda, Jharkhand, living near the U.C.I.L. plant. Both M/S R.E.M.P & M/s U.C.I.L are department of atomic energy enterprises.
3. Few years back, In Mysore railway station containers of radio- active materials were left unattended. The dome of reactor building at construction stage collapsed in nuclear power plant at Kaiga. A fire tragedy occurred in Kakrapar nuclear power plant. In the recent Tsunami waves onslaught, certain important facilities of Koodakulam atomic plant were damaged near Chennai.
4. In 1984, U.S. based MNC union carbide mass murdered nearly 20,000 people, injured lakhs who are still suffering health problems. The polluted poisonous accident site i.e. Union carbide plant in Bhopal is not yet cleared off toxic materials even after 20 years.
This is still further damaging the residents of Bhopal.
5. In the above union carbide disaster, the Government of India didn't present the case properly before supreme courts of India & U.S.A.. As a result the MNC just paid a pittance as compensation. As per that the cost of Indian lives are just a fraction of cost of
American lives. Just imagine if a same disaster occurred in U.S.A. at the plant of a MNC headquartered in India, what would have been the consequence?
6. In India, hazardous chemicals laced with food additives are passed through the drinks, beverages like pepsi, cola, coco cola very easily.
7. The medicines like nimesulide, paracetamol, etc. with hazardous side effects which are banned in U.S.A.& Europe, are easily marketed by the same U.S.& Europe based MNCs in India.
8. In India spurious drugs, medicines, food stuffs are easily marketed.
9. In India, the clinical trials of new medicines under research are done without proper compensation structure to those being tried upon ie. Virtual guinea pigs.
10. In India, the genetically engineered BT crops are being introduced without paying attention to formers, ecology or eco-system.
11. In India, during setting up of large projects, scant attention is paid to environment, eco-system & the displaced persons.
Most of the times, in government projects itself the displaced persons are cheated by the government in numerous ways.
12. In India, various Government as well as private hospitals dumps hospital wastes with deadly viruses in the open, with scant regard to public health.
13. In India, aged ships belonging to foreign countries are breaked down to scrap in ship breaking yards of Gujarath , Maharashtra & AP. Various toxins like the Asbestos, lead, etc & the hazardous, dirty water, Oil inside the ship are drained into Indian seashore. The labourers here are forced to work without any safety gears.
14. When specific cases of human rights violations were brought before the government & Judiciary by us , both of them didn't respond at all.
All the above cases highlight the fact that, government of India & Indian judiciary treats it's citizens lives as cheap, dispensable at will. This is the major attracting force for MNCs to India.
INDIAN CAPITALISM ALWAYS HAD A CRIMINAL SIDE - By Praful
Bidwai
The Satyam [ Get Quote ]
scandal has been wrongly called 'India's Enron', after the gigantic fraud at
the US energy-trading company, which came to light in 2001 and became a
metaphor for corporate crime.
In fact, the Satyam scam is much bigger in absolute magnitude and
likely impact. The amount stolen from Enron was Rs 2,866 crores (Rs 28.66
billion) at current exchange rates. In the Satyam case, according to its
promoter-chairman B Ramalingam Raju, Rs 7,136 crores (Rs 71.36 billion) were
involved. Also greater are the number of defaulting agencies and their
failures.
The impact of the Satyam scandal won't be confined to the 53,000
people on its payroll -- a number higher than the 40,000 Enron employees. The
entire Information Technology industry will be singed by the swindle just when
the global economic slowdown is already hurting it. The World Bank's ban on
IT-India's No 3 Wipro [ Get Quote ],
and Megasoft, besides Satyam, for unethical practices will further aggravate
the industry's difficulties.
The Satyam swindle has tarnished the image of India's [ Images ] IT
industry and cast a shadow over its remarkable 30 percent annual growth, which
is generally attributed to virtuousness, brainpower and hard work, not
inherited wealth. It has lowered the profile of Andhra Pradesh as a land of
gutsy businessmen -- fondly paraded by successive chief ministers as
'Andhra-preneurs' -- who combine a robust native business genius with a modern
extrovert outlook.
Above all, the scam has exposed huge cracks in India's corporate
governance structures and system of regulation through the Securities and
Exchange Board of India, SEBI, ministry of corporate affairs and the Serious
Fraud Investigation Office. Unless the entire system is radically overhauled
and made publicly accountable, corrupt corporate practices will recur, robbing
wealth from the exchequer, public banks and shareholders.
The Andhra Pradesh government has treated Mr Raju with kid gloves.
It failed to arrest him for three days after he made a public confession, thus
giving him time to sanitise/destroy incriminating evidence. His detention by
the state police means that SEBI has been effectively barred from questioning
him. This has bred speculation that Mr Raju has cut a political deal under
which his family would be protected and certain officials rewarded. The Centre
too is preparing to spend Rs 2,000 crores to rescue Satyam and public sector
units haven't shifted their IT operations to other companies.
Mr Raju's January 7 confession and surrender to the police should
fool no one. Contrary to his earlier claim that 'neither me, nor the managing
director (his brother) took even one rupee/dollar from the
company...', he now says he has been cooking Satyam's books for seven years.
He is estimated to have made Rs 2,065 crores (Rs 20.65 billion) by
artificially jacking up the price of Satyam's shares and selling his holdings
(14 percent of the total). Satyam's Chief Finance Officer Vadalamani Srinivas
has said the fixed deposits shown in the books were fictitious.
We still don't know the scam's true dimensions. But two things are
abundantly clear. First, it's extremely doubtful that Mr Raju inflated Satyam's
income by Rs 5,000-plus crores (Rs 50 billion) and even put in Rs 1,230 crores
(Rs 12.30 billion) of his own money. It simply doesn't stand to reason that he
would do this and not siphon off large sums. Equally dubious is his claim that
Satyam's operating margin was as low as 3 percent, compared to the 25 to 30
percent for top-ranking IT companies.
If Satyam's margin was indeed higher, then thousands of crores were
spirited out of the company. It is imperative that this trail is rigorously
traced. It would be surprising if it doesn't lead to real estate scams or
to benami accounts held by politicians. Former Union
revenue secretary E A S Sarma, a public-spirited civil servant of exceptional
integrity, has tried to find some of these tracks through the Right to
Information Act, RTI.
He looked at a private company which is building Gangavaram Port in
Andhra and found that 18 percent of its equity is held by Lakeside Investments
Ltd, a Mauritius-based company, 'apparently... a smokescreen for tax evasion.'
Mr Raju reportedly owns a company with a similar name, Lakeview Investments,
and with the same address.
Mr Sarma has also raised serious questions about the way the state
has handed out thousands of acres without competitive bidding to Maytas (Satyam
spelt backwards) Properties and Maytas Infrastructure. Maytas Infra alone has
projects worth Rs 30,000 crores (Rs 300 billion) in Andhra, including the Rs
12,000-crore Hyderabad metro rail and irrigation projects worth Rs 13,000
crores (Rs 130 billion). All this warrants an in-depth investigation.
Secondly, surrendering to the police in India was Mr Raju's best
guarantee against extradition to the United States, where numerous criminal
cases have been filed against him and where the punishment will be more
rigorous and prompt than in India. For instance, Enron's Kenneth Lay was
charged on 11 counts and set to be sentenced to 45 years in jail when he died.
If Mr Raju is tried for criminal breach of trust in India, he could
get away with as little as three years. Even if he gets a life sentence, he may
end up spending 10 years or less in prison.
The Satyam swindle became possible because all supervisory
mechanisms failed, including the statutory auditor, PriceWaterhouseCoopers,
PwC, independent directors, and SEBI. PwC didn't verify the authenticity of the
account-books. It had similarly failed with Global Trust Bank, which collapsed.
Irregularities were noted in PwC's handling of Satyam accounts in 2001, but
mysteriously, no probe was conducted.
Similarly, a complaint was filed with SEBI by Member of Parliament
Ramdas Athavale in 2003. But under political pressure, this was not pursued.
PwC, which has audited Satyam's accounts since 1991, is guilty of
grave misconduct and should have faced punitive action from the Institute of
Chartered Accounts of India, ICAI. Ironically, PwC has two members in the ICAI
disciplinary council!. The council met, but failed to take action against PwC.
ICAI, like the Bar Council or Medical Association of India, shields, and rarely
acts against, even the most errant of its members.
Satyam's independent directors did no better. They asked no
questions about the accounts When the board met last month to approve the
scandalous proposal to invest $1.6 billion in Maytas, it didn't even refer to
the conflict of interest in buying a company in a completely unrelated
business, floated by the promoter. It only went into technicalities of
conformity with SEBI guidelines, and valuation of assets. Indeed, one of the
independent directors, Krishna Palepu of the Harvard Business School, waxed
eloquent on the merits of real estate investment.
These directors collect fat annual fees ranging from Rs 13 lakhs to
Rs 92 lakhs (Rs 1.3 million to Rs 9.2 billion) just for attending a few
meetings, but clearly lack independence. Many independent directors in India
see board memberships as sinecures or lucrative pastimes unrelated to corporate
governance and public responsibilities.
Even worse was SEBI's failure to investigate Satyam and refuse to
approve its patently foul transactions including the Maytas deal, which was
aborted by investor protests. SEBI also ignored a December 18 letter on Satyam
sent by Mr Sarma. Other authorities also turned a blind eye to various
complaints about the illegal allocation of 17,000 acres of land to Satyam group
companies in different cities, in violation of their master plans.
India lacks adequate corporate regulation, and its enforcement
is pathetic. For instance, as many as 1,228 of the Bombay Stock Exchange's
[ Images ]
4,995 listed companies have failed to submit reports required by Clause 49 of
the Listing Agreement, including information on their boards' composition,
audit committees, CEO/CFO certification of accounts, and related-party
transactions and subsidiary companies.
Corrective action is overdue if corporations are not to cheat
stakeholders and the public. Indian capitalism has always had a criminal side
to it. Our corporate nabobs often milk their companies by appointing
procurement and distribution agents, by under- and over-invoicing
imports/exports, evading taxes, indulging in insider trading, and dressing up
balance-sheets. Satyam fits this pattern, which is widely prevalent in most
brick-and-mortar companies.
Some corrective steps are self-evident. Statutory auditors aren't
enough. We need a Board of Audit, which like the Comptroller and Auditor
General of India, is authorised to conduct surprise audit on its own or on
whistle-blower complaints. Besides, no auditor should be allowed to continue
beyond three years.
The government should create a pool of independent directors from
amongst citizens of high integrity. Impartial authorities, not company
managements, should appoint them and fix their remuneration.
Cross-directorships must be banned. All agent appointments must be thoroughly
scrutinised. Penalties must be stiffened. The conviction rate in corporate
frauds, currently under 5 percent, must be improved.
Breach of trust and fraud must be heavily penalised. If an auditor
fails in his duty in India, he faces a ridiculous penalty of Rs 10,000 and
maximum imprisonment of 2 years. The US Sarbanes-Oxley Act, passed after the
Enron and WorldCom scandals, awards imprisonment for 20 years. The US has
greatly improved fraud detection by reforming audit methods and offering
incentives to whistle-blowers.
We must learn from all this and acknowledge that deregulation
promoted in the name of 'trusting' CEOs and creating a 'favourable investment
climate' is dangerous.
Raghuvir Srinivasan
Is the Satyam scandal just about a promoter manipulating the
financial statements of his company to show a superior performance? Or is it
about systematic siphoning of funds from the company over the years? Emerging
events seem to increasingly point to the latter.
Let’s start with the so-called “confession statement” of Mr
Ramalinga Raju, the disgraced chairman of the company. Lawyers have already
expressed doubts over whether the statement can actually be deemed a confession
and enough to implicate Mr Raju. Indeed, they say that it is a very well
drafted document designed to draw attention to the hole in the finances without
implicating himself anywhere for any act of commission.
Deflecting attention?
A careful reading of the statement shows that there is indeed merit
in this view. Mr Raju has pointed to cash balances not being the same as
reported in the audited financial statements, he has said of how revenues were
inflated, and so on. But nowhere has he said that he was responsible for this
nor has he pointed his finger at anyone else. Of course, as the chairman, the
buck stops with him but that is not the same as saying “I did it”.
If anything, he has tried to project himself as the saviour by
pointing out how he “arranged” Rs 1,230 crore for the company and how neither
he nor the managing director “took even one rupee/dollar from the company and
have not benefited in financial terms on account of the inflated results”.
Mr Raju appears to have attempted to deflect attention from what is
possibly the more serious crime of siphoning of funds to the relatively lesser
one of accounting skulduggery. This is being clever by half. How on earth did
he think that the shareholders, lenders, legal agencies and the world at large
would believe him on this?
People who were and are working in responsible positions in Satyam
say that the company has a real business going and some of its divisions are
extremely profitable and there is no question of doubting the revenues from
them. There is no way that operating margin will be as low as 3 per cent, they
say, unless of course, if money had been sucked out of the company.
The second event that raises doubts is the carefully orchestrated
arrest of Mr Raju. He surrendered himself to the police the night before he was
to appear before the SEBI investigating team. The arrest and remand ensured
that SEBI was unable to interrogate him.
The market regulator will eventually be able to quiz him, but the
question is: Will there be evidence destroyed before that? As it is, there is
the possibility that Mr Raju may have destroyed crucial evidence implicating
him before he went public with his “confession”.
Political angle
And then, there is the political angle to the scandal. Mr Raju and
his companies (Maytas group) have been beneficiaries of large public contracts
for transport systems and irrigation projects in Andhra Pradesh. Nexus between
businessmen and politicians is an accepted reality in this country. So is
someone powerful attempting now to protect Mr Raju? Or is it that he knows too
much about wheeling-dealings and hence needs to be kept away from
investigators?
Allegations and counter-allegations have been flying thick and fast
from both the ruling and Opposition parties in Andhra Pradesh over favours,
secured and shown, to Mr Raju by both. The government appointed board has a
task on its hands. It will have to dig, and dig deep to unravel the scandal in
all its dimensions. What is now out in public is probably just one dimension
and it may be the least scandalous one. Mr Raju has himself said that the
irregularities have been happening for years. Therefore, it is only correct to
assume that more skeletons will come tumbling out once SEBI and the Company Law
Board bury their noses into the books of Satyam.
There is the danger though that political pressure will be brought
on to scuttle the investigations or obfuscate the findings. This is where the
government-appointed board will assume importance. Not only will the government
have to appoint people of integrity and high standing but these people will
have to discharge their responsibility of getting to the bottom of this scandal
without hesitation or fear.
ICAI to take stock
Finally, a word on the auditors, Price Waterhouse. The Central
Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), regulatory
body of the accounting profession, is set to meet on Monday to take stock of
the developments from the Satyam scandal on the profession.
Interestingly, two members of the Central Council, Mr S.
Gopalakrishnan and Mr Harinderjit Singh, are senior partners of Price
Waterhouse. Mr Gopalakrishnan signed the 2006-07 balance sheet of Satyam. Will
the two gentlemen sit in on the deliberations on Monday at the ICAI? Or will
they opt out on grounds of conflict of interest? Or better still, will they
resign from the Central Council, which is the policy-making and governing body
of the ICAI? Is it too much to ask for the last?
Source / courtesy: The Hindu
India: Descent Into Darkness
By Colin Gonsalves
In the 61st year of the republic, surely, India has transited into
Kalyug. Surveys of the Union of India as well as expert reports published by
the Arjun Sengupta committee and the NC Saxena Committee appointed by the
Central government reveal that almost 77 per cent of the population in India
are below the poverty line in terms of the food intake minimum standard of
2,400 kilocalories (kcal) per person per day, a standard set by the Planning
Commission in 1979.
Over 50 per cent of all women and children are malnourished with 17
per cent of the child population being so severely malnourished that a whole
new generation of Indians will become adults with malformed brains and stunted
growth. Even in the urban areas where conspicuous consumption is always on
display, malnourishment of children is upwards of 50 per cent.
This is the spectre of starving India.
For the top 20 per cent of the population (and less than 3 per cent
of the sensex/stock market) who have experienced the licence to loot, corrupt
and cheat during the ongoing period of globalisation, this is Satyug. Since the
beginning of the decline of Nehruvian social democracy in the early 1990s and
the establishment of what is called the liberalisation regime, the rich have
never had it so good.
A seismic shift has taken place in the thinking of politicians,
corporations, administrators and judges, fuelled partly by international
capital and the devious planning of the World Bank and the IMF. Whereas earlier
and in accordance with the constitutional mandate, the country was to be taken
along as a whole, the resources of the State were to be used to subserve the
common good and a reasonable part of the gross domestic product (GDP) was to be
kept aside to subsidise education, health, food, housing and transportation for
the working people. With globalisation all this began to change drastically,
systematically and with abject cold-blooded deliberation.
Education for all was quickly jettisoned with the argument that it
is impossible to educate so many poor children, that it is inadvisable and
unproductive to spread resources thinly and that since in any case the middle
classes are the engines of change, State resources ought to be concentrated on
them if the GDP is to be pushed up. Thus, while fancy educational institutions
multiply and students’ fees rise many times over, poor students learn under
trees or in the open (in freezing cold or scorching summer) without schools,
textbooks and often without teachers and the officially promised mid-day meals.
The Supreme Court in TMA Pai’s case, made a disgraceful decision
opening the doors for commercialisation and privatisation of education and
casting a shadow on the earlier decision in Unnikrishnan’s case correctly
providing for strict State regulation and prohibition on commercialisation.
Similarly, while some of the finest health facilities in the world
sprung up in the cities of India, government public health facilities went into
a tailspin. The public health centers lacked medicines, doctors, testing
equipment, beds and food for poor patients. As the despair with public health
care is increasing, the World Bank merrily came along with its prescription for
“user fees” requiring people below the poverty line to pay for health services.
Dalit or poor women delivering on the pavements outside government hospitals
became a common sight.
Despite the jurisprudential exhortation that the right to public
health care, free drugs and indigenously manufactured medicines is a fundamental
right under Article 21 of the Constitution, the rot set in and is too deep to
reverse. How does it matter and what effect could it possibly have on the GDP
if tens of thousands of poor people suffer ill health or die of malaria or
tuberculosis? From the GDP point of view, health care for the poor simply does
not matter.
The shift in ideology away from social democracy towards what was
quaintly called ‘globalisation’ affected the judiciary as well. Senior judges
who were derisive of the post-independence emphasis on ‘egalitarian socialism’
used the enormous power of the judiciary to undermine social policies of the
government, bypass binding precedents and generally stripped the working people
of constitutional law protections.
In the Steel Authority of India Limited case, the Supreme Court
made it possible for capitalists to convert their entire labour force into
contractual labour, thus effectively taking away all their protection under
labour laws. In Uma Devi’s case, persons who were employed and were working for
decades in permanent work positions on a pittance, were denied regularisation,
thus giving a legal cover to slave labour.
Marvelous environmental jurisprudence meticulously put in place by
Justice Kuldeep Singh and others in the Supreme Court was systematically
dismantled by subsequently appointed judges in the superior courts who had a
pro-capitalist bend of mind. They saw environmental law and environmental
activism as an irritant which hindered the ‘development’ of the country. They,
therefore, used the quite dubious doctrine of ’sustainable development’ in an
even more suspect way to allow for all kinds of environmentally destructive
industrial activity, quite unmindful of its catastrophic and long-term effect
on the environment.
As a result, India today is in the process of being completely
devastated. The forests have been decimated in many parts indiscrimately for
big projects, the cities are polluted, lush green areas have been mined, the
rivers of India turned into sewage drains and water shortage has become so
acute that in the years to come social upheavals will centre around this acute
deprivation. The great Indian nation is being turned into a desert with its
sacred rivers becoming dirty drains.
When the tribals, dalits, workers, slum dwellers and the
dispossessed of this country protested, often feebly, they were met with fierce
repression. Police torture is widespread and has become the principle forensic
tool for the investigation of crimes. Nowhere in the world, perhaps, has the police
force turned into such an awesome body of ruthless creatures in uniform, as in
India.
The average rate of conviction in the country in cases of
atrocities against Dalits has sunk to 1 per cent. As a result, rape of Dalit
women, murder of Dalits, destruction of their houses, burning of standing
crops, robbing of cattle, destruction of Dalit temples, throwing excreta inside
wells, untouchability and practices such as the two tumbler system, continues
unchecked till this day while the justice system seems immune.
Despite the right to housing being declared a fundamental right by
the Supreme Court in Nawab Khan’s case and although the UPA manifesto
specifically includes a ban on forced evictions of slums, about a million of
the urban poor every year have their homes bulldozed without notice,
compensation or rehabilitation to make way for the skyscrapers of the rich.
All this does not auger well for the legal system in India, one of
the main pillars of the democratic State. The working people shy away from the
courts and participate reluctantly when they are dragged into the legal system
through coercive proceedings. Labour court proceedings throughout the country
have shrunk by 75 per cent and the once vibrant institutions that balanced the
interests of capital and labour have become stultified. Tribals shun the
courts. Even the most serious of crimes like rape and murder make the victims
approach the courts with grave reluctance.
This is not difficult to understand as the legal system operates
just like a colonial power, as an engine of oppression. Probably, one million
false or trivial cases are pending in the Indian courts against innocent
tribals who are forced to attend court and loose their wages day after day. It
took a Maoist uprising for PC Chidambaram, the Union Home Minister, to
understand this elementary truth and announce the withdrawal of one lakh cases
filed by the State against tribals in Jharkhand alone.
Decisions of the Supreme Court under the Land Acquisition Act have
made possible tyrannical state acquisitions of land throughout the country
making the vast majority of Indian farmers suspicious of the legal system. With
regard to as elementary and established a right as a woman’s right to
maintenance, the woes of women in family court matters seems never ending.
The State just can’t get its act together to enforce the
appointment of judges although it is now well settled that India has one fifth
the number of judges that it needs. Delays are not accidental, they are
intended. The legal system is designed to tie the litigant up in endless and
expensive proceedings where justice is illusory.
Public Interest Litigation, which is the only lifeline between the
judiciary and the people of India, is being denigrated time and again and not
unexpectedly because there are those who believe that the legal system is best
used for sorting out property disputes and commercial matters. Legal aid has
been reduced to a farce of seminars with the presentation of bouquets. In death
sentence cases involving destitute persons, the legal aid lawyer may even miss
a cross examination or two.
It is sometimes all too easy to blame judges for the ills of the
legal system. If one turns to the quality of the Bar, one would notice all
kinds of elements wearing bands and gowns and committing all kinds of
illegalities. Criminality pervades many parts of the legal system.
Between democracy and darkness stands the judiciary. It stands
heads and shoulders above the judicial systems in Asia. But it is in rapid
decline. Ahead is pitch darkness.
This is the period of Kalyug. The lust for money that globalisation
brought with it has decisively depleted spirituality, morality, collective
sharing, equality and social justice. It has only institutionalised a spiraling
network of stark and relentless injustice. Only a national uprising will
reverse this trend.
[The writer is a senior lawyer, Supreme Court of India, and
Founding-Director, Human Rights Law Network]
Top 10 Financial Scams in India
- Siddharth Singh
Financial scams have a habit of cropping up with an alarming
regularity in the Indian financial system. We have reconciled to financial
irregularities to such an extent that we simply do not pay heed to smaller
scams that take place around us on a daily basis. I am, or rather was, a part
of the financial machinery for a few years, and trust me, even the private
sector is not entirely free of the machinations of unscrupulous and
enterprising scamsters. The scope of the money involved multiplies manifold in
the public sector, with a corresponding drop in accountability.
Financial Scamsters Are Rarely Punished
Despite a plethora of scams that surround us on a daily basis,
frequently scams of large proportions come to light, and manage to stun even
our jaded sensibilities. Then, there is the usual round of allegations,
counter-allegations, enquiries and legislation. Some of our most notable
regulations and financial institutions are the results of such scams.
I have compiled a list of ten leading financial scams in India,
which have affected a large population of investors, and involved huge sums of
money. They managed to shake the very foundations of our financial system, and
were driven by that most basest of human instincts – GREED. In most cases, it
was the greed of just one individual, or a very small group of individuals, who
managed to pull of such huge scandals.
Insurance Scam – This scam had originated and prospered in
the period immediately following Independence in 1947. At that time, the
insurance sector was not nationalized, and a handful of private companies ruled
the roost. These companies were more concerned with providing benefits to
selected industrialists, and ignored the interests of the common man. The
government responded by nationalizing the insurance sector, and the LIC was
founded under an special Act passed by the Parliament. This scam laid the
foundation of the nationalization culture in India.
Securities Scam – Harshad Mehta – This is perhaps the most
well known of all financial scams – probably because it happened in a highly
visible period – economic reforms had just been started in 1991. Harshad Mehta
was quick to understand the weaknesses of the banking system, and exploited
these weaknesses to the hilt. He managed to procure huge amounts of money using
the so called “Ready Forward” deals, and used this money to purchase large
amounts of shares at hugely inflated prices. He earned the sobriquet of “Big
Bull” due to this penchant. Later, the banks got a clue of his shady deals, and
demanded their money back. The house of cards collapsed, and the rest, as they
say, is history!
CRB Scam – This scam took place in the years 1992-1996, the
period immediately following the Harshad Mehta fallout. This makes the scam
even all the more daring and surprising. CR Bhansali, the perpetrator of this
scam, floated more than 100 companies, such as CRB Mutual Funds and CRB Capital
Markets. The primary purpose of these companies was to attract huge funds from
the public by promising high rates of interest. This interest was later paid
form further borrowings, and so on. In 1995, the stock market collapsed,
and this proved to be the undoing of CR Bhansali. He was investigated, and
later arrested. After a brief 3-month stint in jail, he has disappeared without
a trace, and nobody is asking!
UTI Scam – The UTI scam involved the flagship US-64 scheme of
UTI, which was meant to channel the funds of small investors into instruments
bearing high returns. Gradually, US-64 developed a investor base of around 2
crore investors. The economic liberalization in India, coupled with the
absolute opacity in the operations of UTI, led to a situation wherein the
Government was forced to announce a huge bailout of about Rs 3,500-4,000 crores
in an order to prevent default in payments to the investors. The consequences
of such a situation are unimaginable. But the story does not end here. Later,
it turned out that the UTI Chairman appointed at this time, Mr P S Subramanyam,
along with a couple of executive directors, acted wrongly to selectively
benefit a powerful coterie of brokers and industrialists, while at the same
time, jeopardizing the interest of lakhs of small investors.
Home Trade – Around the year 2000, a finance portal emerged
on the financial landscape, and gained quick recognition on the back of
endorsements by personalities like Hrithik Roshan, Sachin Tendulkar and
Shahrukh Khan. The portal, owned by Sanjay Agarwal, claimed to deal in gilts.
Soon, RBI got suspicious of activities of some cooperative banks in the gilt
market, and a scam was uncovered. The same old saga – brokers and bankers
combining to rob people of their hard earnings – was repeated. Funds from
Seaman’s Provident Fund and PPF were affected. The total scam size was reported
to be around Rs 300 crores, and more than Rs 200 crores were spent on publicity
costs alone.
Ketan Parekh
Securities Scam – Ketan Parekh – That our system never learns
its lessons was proved by this scam. Ketan Parkekh, a qualified CA, and a stock
broker, identified a number of stocks (popularly called the K-10), and took up
huge positions in these. For this purpose, he used a large number of Benami
accounts and smaller stock exchanges, such as the Kolkata and Ahmedabad stock
exchanges. He also borrowed heavily from banks such as Global Trust Bank and
Madhavpura Mercantile Cooperative Bank. Unfortunately, he was stuck in a bear
cartel, and was soon pounded to pulp on the stock exchange. The extent of the
scam was estimated to be around Rs 1,500 crores.
Abdul Karim Telgi
Fake Stamp Papers – This scam promised to be the mother of
all scams in India, with the initial reports quoting a figure of Rs 30,000
crores as the scam size. Later, RBI clarified that this figure was “rather
exaggerated”, and the “correct” figure was around Rs 200 crores. Again, this
scam exposes how the India system works – Mr Abdul Karim Telgi, the scam
kingpin, paid bribes to get access to the security press in Nasik, where stamp
papers and currency notes are printed. He later used this knowledge to print
fake stamp papers. At the height of the scam, Telgi’s network spanned 14
states, 125 banks and more than 1,000 employees.
DSQ Software – Though this scam was modest in terms of money
involved (only Rs 600 crores!), and did not affect the general public to a great
extent, yet it is notable for how it came into being. The main player in the
scam was Mr Dinesh Dalmia, who was the MD of DSQ Software Ltd. This company
issued around 1.3 million shares in 2001, and these shares were allotted to
four companies on a preferential basis. NSDL, a stock depository,
dematerialized and helped in delivering the shares. Nothing wrong in that,
except that the shares were not even listed on any stock exchange!
Oops!
IPO Scam – A number of key operators, including corporate
stock brokers such as Karvy and Indiabulls, were involved in the IPO scam that
spanned the years 2004 – 2005. The modus operandi was simple – the operators
would open thousands of fake accounts to purchase shares in IPOs, in the hope
of selling later at huge profits. A spate of IPOs issued during this period
were heavily oversubscribed due to this scam, sometimes by as much as 40 times!
Satyam – On a cold January morning in 2009, Ramalinga Raju,
chairman of Satyam Computer Services, admitted to falsification in the company
accounts and various other irregularities, and sent a chill down the collective
spine of the Indian financial system. Coming on the back of the global
recession, this incident promised to bust the Indian outsourcing industry and
the stock market, but for some deft bailout work by the government. The matter
is still under investigation and litigation, and the true extent of the scam
will be known in the future, perhaps. Mr Raju himself had admitted to
irregularities worth around Rs 12,000 crores.
An analysis of the scams reveals a common script – greed,
corruption, unscrupulous brokers, colluding bankers, irresponsible authorities
and hapless investors, who refuse to learn their lessons. But then, these are
the essential ingredients of a worthy financial scam!
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A brief about Top 10 Investment Scams in India
- The Securities Scam
The capital market witnessed its foremost investment scandal in the form of securities scandal in the year 1992. It revealed the utter anarchy and lack of administration in the prevailing fiscal market. The money market at that time permitted funds to be relocated with impunity from financial institution and corporates into equity and consequently witnessed crores of bank's capital to transfer into brokers' account. This illegal market practice was later asserted as "legal and acknowledged".
In an attempt to punish the tricksters, a special court was initiated and scrutinized around 70 cases registered by CBI. Surprisingly, not even a single trickster was found guilty by the dreadfully sluggish judicial system. As a matter of fact, the scamsters made frequent attempts to re-enter the market with same set of traps and resulted in losses to investors. - The IPO scam Soon after
the entry of international organizational investors, the Control over
Capital Issues was banned as the market saw heavy bull trend resulting in
the revitalization of the secondary market from the previous scandals. The
ban of Control over Capital Issues unlocked the prospects of massive
scandal in Initial Public Offerings (IPO). The scam was executed in two
parts; the first part was carried out by the firms that increased their
market costs to incur profits in order to sponsor lucrative projects. The
second part saw the unison of small time merchants, CAs, investment
bankers and traders to hoist new firms and heave public capitals.
The IPO scam prevailed for three long years from 1993-1996 and finally saw its downfall when the costs of the registered firm started deteriorating. - Favored share scam
The scandal was an outcome of the extensive cost fixing on the derivative market. Besides increasing fresh capital, advocates of Indian firms promptly coordinated general body authorizations to transfer shares to themselves on a privileged basis and at a considerable reduction to the market, thinking that the share prices would never see the ground. Conglomerates started this trend and accrued profits of nearly 55o crores until Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) formulated strict guidelines to abandon the market practice. - CRB's cardboard scam
The Rs 1000 crore finacial multinational named as Chain Roop Bhansali (CRB) was the only biggest firm and most impudent of all to benefit and disappear in the loosened market ambiance of mid-1990s. The services offered by his firm entailed FC collection, mutual fund, banking, etc. The clearances obtained by the firm for the trading of these services required sufficient inspection by SEBI and the RBI and the fact that they managed to qualify shows the supervisory weariness of the regulators. Facilitated by the clearances and profitable credit ranking, CRB accrued greater profits based on high value financing. The CRB collapse not only affected the investors but also the other finance firms. - Plantation firms' scam
Since few firms in mid-90s were subject to no guidelines, the plantation companies during that time also got away with profit protrusions. The plantation firms projected themselves as a part of IPO and assured massive returns. The investors were lured and the companies accrued profits from fake campaigns of around Rs 8000 crores plus. - Mutual Funds scam
After several mutual fund scams, the UTI bailout reflected the lack of proper guidelines in the Indian capital market. Since UTI was initiated under its own regulations, it was the tax payers who suffered the loss of Rs 4800 crore in the process. After three years, the company was back purchasing Ketan Parekh's controlled scrips and incurring massive losses in the process. The evidence of the private mutual funds performance has also been inconsistent after hitting the downfall in 1999 and 2000. It took a considerable amount of time for capital market to win back the trust of mutual fund investors. - The 1998 scam
The scamster of 1992 scam, Harshad Mehta came back with a bag of tricks again in 1998. This time he lured investors through a website by trading stock tips. His unremitting manipulation of several shares resulted in the much expected collapse of Bombay Stock Exchange. - Home Trade scam
Initiated in 2000, Home trade invested rs 24 crore in promotional campaigns to attract investors. The scam affected 8 co-operative banks that lost Rs.82 Crore in EPF scheme. The Chief Executive of Hometrade, Mr. Sanjay Aggarwal was convicted by Nagpur Police later. - DSQ Software Scam
In the year 2000 and 2001, the Managing Director of DSQ Software, Mr. Dinesh Dalmia, was held responsible for ambiguous mergers and prejudiced allocation of the amount of upto Rs.595 Crores. He was later convicted in the year 2006. - Satyam Scam
After manipulating the firm's documents for several financial years, the former Chairman and Chief Executive of Satyam Computers, Mr.Ramalinga Raju, was arrested for committing scam, following unethical practice and forgery. He showed greater profits and committed fraud of Rs 700 crores.
Shame! India sold its dead cheap Shobhan Saxena,
Around 22,000 dead. More than 1,20,000 injured. Rs 1 lakh for
each
body. Rs 25,000 for every poisoned lung and damaged heart and blinded
eyes. 26 years of long wait. And just 2 years in jail for the men who
committed the worst crime against the people of this country. And this
mockery of justice after such a long wait. Twenty six years after 40
tonnes of lethal gas seeped into the lungs of Bhopal, families of some
17,000 men, women and children are still waiting for the so-called
compensation. Thousands more are still waiting to be accepted as
victims. People of Bhopal are still drinking toxic water poisoned by
Union Carbide in December 1984. And the main culprit is living life
kingsize in a mansion in New York.
body. Rs 25,000 for every poisoned lung and damaged heart and blinded
eyes. 26 years of long wait. And just 2 years in jail for the men who
committed the worst crime against the people of this country. And this
mockery of justice after such a long wait. Twenty six years after 40
tonnes of lethal gas seeped into the lungs of Bhopal, families of some
17,000 men, women and children are still waiting for the so-called
compensation. Thousands more are still waiting to be accepted as
victims. People of Bhopal are still drinking toxic water poisoned by
Union Carbide in December 1984. And the main culprit is living life
kingsize in a mansion in New York.
No country sells its people so cheap.
No country sells its poor so cheap.
No country sells its dead so cheap.
No country sells its poor so cheap.
No country sells its dead so cheap.
Today – on the day of Bhopal disaster
judgment -- if there is a failed
state in the world, it’s India. It’s not Iraq. It’s not Somalia. It’s
not Sudan. It’s India.
state in the world, it’s India. It’s not Iraq. It’s not Somalia. It’s
not Sudan. It’s India.
India – its government, judiciary and corporates – accepted
the
ridiculous amount of $450 million dollars for the people killed and
maimed by methyl isocyanate leaked from the Union Carbide factory in
the heart of Bhopal three decades ago. In all these years, the poor
victims have done everything they could to get justice and
compensation. They have cried and died on streets, sat hungry and
faced police lathis on roads and filed court cases in the hope that
one day they will get justice.
ridiculous amount of $450 million dollars for the people killed and
maimed by methyl isocyanate leaked from the Union Carbide factory in
the heart of Bhopal three decades ago. In all these years, the poor
victims have done everything they could to get justice and
compensation. They have cried and died on streets, sat hungry and
faced police lathis on roads and filed court cases in the hope that
one day they will get justice.
Today, they were denied justice. Today, they were told that they
should be happy with the peanuts thrown at them by Union Carbide.
Today, India proved once again that it doesn’t care for its poor.
Today, it was proved all over again that those who do politics in the
name of poor in this country, always rule for the rich.
should be happy with the peanuts thrown at them by Union Carbide.
Today, India proved once again that it doesn’t care for its poor.
Today, it was proved all over again that those who do politics in the
name of poor in this country, always rule for the rich.
What justification does CBI have for not being able to produce
Warren
Anderson in court. The chairman of UC at the time of the gas attack
(it was not an accident, the gas leak was caused because of cost-
cutting steps taken by him) on the people of Bhopal, Anderson was
arrested and later released on bail. He ran off to US in 1986 and we
have not been able to find him or ask the US to extradite Anderson to
India. Why? The government says it doesn’t know where Anderson is.
What a lie. What a shame.
Anderson in court. The chairman of UC at the time of the gas attack
(it was not an accident, the gas leak was caused because of cost-
cutting steps taken by him) on the people of Bhopal, Anderson was
arrested and later released on bail. He ran off to US in 1986 and we
have not been able to find him or ask the US to extradite Anderson to
India. Why? The government says it doesn’t know where Anderson is.
What a lie. What a shame.
Last year, on a balmy July day, a bunch of victims danced on the
streets after hearing news that the Chief Judicial Magistrate of
Bhopal had ordered the CBI to arrest Anderson and produce him before
the court without delay. The court also asked the CBI to explain what
steps it had taken since 2002 to enforce the warrant and extradition
of Anderson, who was declared an absconder in 1992. Though the CBI and
US government failed to track Anderson, supporters of Bhopal victims
traced him to the elite New York neighbourhood of the Hamptons. In
2003, Greenpeace activists paid Anderson a visit at his home and
handed him an arrest warrant.
streets after hearing news that the Chief Judicial Magistrate of
Bhopal had ordered the CBI to arrest Anderson and produce him before
the court without delay. The court also asked the CBI to explain what
steps it had taken since 2002 to enforce the warrant and extradition
of Anderson, who was declared an absconder in 1992. Though the CBI and
US government failed to track Anderson, supporters of Bhopal victims
traced him to the elite New York neighbourhood of the Hamptons. In
2003, Greenpeace activists paid Anderson a visit at his home and
handed him an arrest warrant.
Today’s ridiculous judgment in Bhopal didn’t
say anything on Anderson
as he is a “proclaimed offender”. This status suits him fine because
he doesn’t have to bother about coming to India and answer some very
crucial questions:
as he is a “proclaimed offender”. This status suits him fine because
he doesn’t have to bother about coming to India and answer some very
crucial questions:
*Why did Union Carbide not apply the same safety standards at
its
plant in India as it operated at a sister plant in West Virginia, US?
plant in India as it operated at a sister plant in West Virginia, US?
*On the night of the disaster, why did the six safety measures
designed to prevent a gas leak fail to function?
designed to prevent a gas leak fail to function?
*Why was the safety siren, intended to alert the people living
close
to the factory, turned off?
to the factory, turned off?
The victims have always alleged that Bhopal happened because of
negligence by the Union Carbide and that was caused by cost-cutting
measures taken by Anderson. Is it because of this reason that Anderson
has been 'hiding' in the US?
negligence by the Union Carbide and that was caused by cost-cutting
measures taken by Anderson. Is it because of this reason that Anderson
has been 'hiding' in the US?
A criminal has a reason to hide, but what reason does our
government
have to let a mass murderer like Anderson go scot-free. Is it because
he is an American? Can an American come to India kill people in this
country and run away with no consequences? That seems to be the case.
We are still struggling to get a chance to question David Headley
Coleman, an American citizen responsible for the worst terror attack
on an Indian city in 2008. Will we succeed in getting Headley
extradited to India? No way. Never.
have to let a mass murderer like Anderson go scot-free. Is it because
he is an American? Can an American come to India kill people in this
country and run away with no consequences? That seems to be the case.
We are still struggling to get a chance to question David Headley
Coleman, an American citizen responsible for the worst terror attack
on an Indian city in 2008. Will we succeed in getting Headley
extradited to India? No way. Never.
Today, India proved that it doesn’t really care for its
people,
particularly if they have been slaughtered by powerful people from the
most powerful nation in the world. Instead of taking on America and
fighting for justice for its poor, India is more than happy to sell
its dead cheap.
particularly if they have been slaughtered by powerful people from the
most powerful nation in the world. Instead of taking on America and
fighting for justice for its poor, India is more than happy to sell
its dead cheap.
Rs 1 lakh for every body. Rs 25,000 for every blinded eye. This is
the
cost of poor life in a failed state.
cost of poor life in a failed state.
Two momentous events separate in time and location have seared our
consciousness—the British (Beyond) Petroleum Gulf Coast oil spill on April 20,
2010 and the American Union Carbide Bhopal Gas Tragedy in December 3, 1984.
Twenty five years separate these two environmental and human disasters but the
greed of big multinational corporations in connivance with state and central
agencies still remains insatiable. With a keen eye on profit, big companies compromise
safety standards, falsify data, overstate their strength, underestimate their
drawbacks, bribe officials, lobby for protection and misinform the public. It
is rather difficult to fuse ethical economic standards with ravenous
profit-making schemes. Though oil and gas stink most multinational corporations
love it.
The neo-classical model of economics has reduced our land and
environment to a mere abstraction that can be exploited in terms of supply and
demand without compunction. Big companies continue to wreck havoc on our human
and natural systems devastating our lives in the name of human progress and
development. At such moments we often wonder where is the fashionable concept
called social corporate responsibility that is often taught as a philanthropic
and ethical tool in business management departments to unsuspecting students.
Corporate greed like all other forms of human greed need to be kept under
strict check by international pay czars or up-to-date legislation based on
global standards with teeth for swift punishment. Also the rhetoric of
corporate companies must be separated from what they actually do, how long they
do what they do, and what they hide. A constant monitoring system both on the
part of governments and private groups must be effectively installed in
collaboration with the media to thwart their nefarious activities and ulterior
motives.
Union Carbide Bhopal Gas Tragedy 1984
Early this month the Indian Supreme Court passed a verdict indicting the American CEO of Union Carbide Warren Anderson who was allowed to escape to the United States twenty five years ago possibly with the connivance of either the state or central agencies in India. Now both the Congress government and state ministries are trying to escape their involvement in the murky plot. Who wanted the truth then? And who wants the truth now? The declassified CIA report of December 8, 1984 and recent revelations by the principal secretary of Rajiv Gandhi, P. C. Alexander, point to political intrigue involving both state and center in releasing Anderson. Now some leaders claim that the worsening law and order situation in Bhopal in the wake of the accident forced Chief Minister Arjun Singh to provide a safe corridor to Anderson out of the country. Some like Rajinder Puri even see the direct hand of Rajeev Gandhi himself. It seems that US President Ronald Reagan phoned Rajeev Gandhi to release Anderson. The media would like us to believe that even P. Chidambaram and Kamal Nath were campaigning for Dow Chemical to get special concessions so it could invest in India. The chief minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi criticized Sonia Gandhi for the complicity of the Congress Party in the murky affair but it has come to light that he had signed an MOU between state public sector company Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Ltd and Dow Chemicals in April 2008. This is the case of the pot calling the kettle black.
Seemingly neither the American nor the Indian establishments saw the industrial disaster as the responsibility of the MNC Union Carbide. The company was bought by Dow Chemical Company in 1999 further camouflaging accountability. Dow Chemical was the second biggest Texas polluting company in 2009 and paid 1.14 million USD on eight counts of pollution. Now it is investing again in India with the syrupy connivance of people in power.
Even after 25 years the public would like to know if it was Arjun Singh the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh or influential persons in Rajiv Gandhi’s government at the center or the prime minister himself responsible for giving a free passage to Anderson to fly back to the U.S. India has an extradition treaty with the United States and under changed circumstances today when America itself is suffering from another MNC BP, there might be possibility of bringing the fugitive CEO back to justice if India can put together enough evidence. Greenpeace believes that in the 1982 safety audit of the Bhopal factory in the US addressed thirty safety hazards. Anderson knew about them and compromised safety standards causing the death of 20,000 people and affecting 578,000 to date. To make the tragedy reprehensible the out of court settlement made Union Carbide pay a sum of 470 million USD instead of 3.5 billion initially demanded, with each victim getting a measly sum of 550 USD in 1989. In the same year Exxon oil spill in Prince William Sound Alaska forced the company to pay 5 billion USD of which it paid half. Even today there is 425 tons of hazardous waste in Bhopal left by Union Carbide that needs to be cleaned. Who will do it—Dow Chemical or the Indian state government?
Anderson now 90 years lives in a luxury home worth 900,000 USD at 929 Ocean Road, Bridgehampton, Long Island, New York. He is now less of a fugitive and more of a monarch (Sonnenfeld, 1991). It is obvious that in many cases justice delayed is justice denied. Should we stop big companies from doing business? Should we impose heavy penalty on erring foreign companies? Or should we reform the slow and cumbrous judicial system? Jeremy Kahn writing in The Faster Times calls for judicial reform rather than protectionism (Kahn, 2010). The Indian Parliament is debating a law capping liability for foreign nuclear power companies involved in disasters to pay 100 million USD a pittance when compared to the US demand of 100 billion USD from BP. Then Indian law capping liability lacks teeth and may not cover non-nuclear companies. So they can pollute as of before.
British or Beyond Petroleum
The British are desperate to save BP from going down by bringing silly arguments like BP has been a part of America since it merged with American energy Amoco in 1998 and acquired the Gulf of Mexico drilling rights (The Independent, “Cameron Warns Obama over Criticizing BP” 13 June 2010). The new British Prime Minister David Cameron has also chipped in underscoring the sustained “economic importance” of BP to both Britain and America. American President Barrack Obama however is needled by US senators, whose states have been ravaged by oil spills, to push for 100 billion USD compensation, which if realized would force BP to go bankrupt. The British media believes that Obama’s anti-British rhetoric is testing Anglo-American relations. Obama claims that American relation with Britain has not been affected. The environmental disaster caused by a British multinational company should have nothing to do with national identity but corporate liability. Obama has called BP the Swedish Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg, who earns a fat cat salary of 3.8 million USD, to the White House for consultations.
The British are cut up with Obama’s off the cuff remark that he would have fired BP’s chief executive Tony Hayward if the latter had worked for him. With US pressure rising BP may not pay its quarterly dividends which are essential to maintain equilibrium for UK pension funds. The 6.7% shares lunge in the FTSE has adversely affected pension funds in the UK. If the status quo is not altered by American pressure groups BP might only have to pay 20 to 37 billion USD provided it can be proved that BP failed to meet safety regulations in the deep sea oil drilling.
Now BP is using two kinds of dispersants manufactured by Nalco—Corexit 9500 and Corexit EC 9527A. Corexit (deodorized kerosene) is banned in the United Kingdom as even 2.61 ppm can kill 50% of fish in 96 hours. The dispersants turn the oil slick into small particulates which settle on the sea bed and make things look clean on the surface, but they destroy marine life below. Corexit however is on the approved list of dispersants by the US Environmental Protection Agency though the EPA has advised BP to use less toxic dispersants. BP however refused citing lack of availability. The toxicity of the present dispersants increase when they get mixed with oil. BP has links with Nalco. BPs has poured 1,621,000 gallons of dispersants in the Gulf of Mexico to contain the oil spill and has ordered for an additional 805,000 gallons. The ill effects of the dispersant on humans can result in various diseases, reduced growth, kidney failure and death.
The British rely on BP as the national icon and savior of British deficit. Last year BP paid 1.4 billion dollars in taxes on its profits. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is too far away for the ordinary Britons but the pension funds and BP dividends are closer home.
It stands to logic that a “large, wealthy company” which is eager to pay 1.8 billion quarterly dividends to its shareholders and whose last year’s sales and operating revenues were 239 billion USD, should pay 100 billion USD in damages. Since the oil spill began on April 22, 2010 till June 15, 2010, 55 days have gone by. And if we estimate the oil spill at 50,000 barrels a day it comes to 27500000 gallons. If each gallon spill is fined 4300 USD as the US is suggesting the actual fine would come to 118,250,000,000 that is about 118 billion USD. These figures may not be exact and are vigorously contested by BP which would like to work with half the numbers. However the end is not in sight. According to BP officials it would not be before August that the spill can be contained. If this is true then the figure could be doubled and BP would have to pay damages amounting to all the revenue it earned through sales last year.
Both the American government and public are hopeful that since earlier erring companies like Texaco was forced into bankruptcy in 1987 after paying 10.53 billion USD claim, BP too would have to cough up huge sums. And BP’s reputation does not help a wee bit whatever they claim to the contrary in those daily briefings on the Internet. BP is known as one of the “ten worst corporations” in the world when evaluated on their environmental pollution and infringement of their human rights record. It also has the dubious distinction of being the most polluting company in the United States vis-à-vis EPA toxic release data of 1991. It has been fined 1.7 million USD for burning polluted gases at its Ohio refinery. It also paid 10 million USD fine to the EPA in July 2000 for mismanaging the US oil refineries. The US Public Interest Research Group or PIRG claims that between Jan 1997 and March 1998, BP was involved in 104 oil spills. Obviously a lot of wealthy shareholders, 37% on the British and 31 % on the American side do not want this to happen.
BP’s propaganda regarding its CSR is highly effective as it tries to highlight only the positive aspects of what it has done. In the past BP has invested some money in alternate fuel and green technologies but it has been criticized for proving private funds to public universities of the California Bay Area and closing down its green technology office in London. Its critics call its green technology projects as green washing projects. BP is also a leading producer of solar panels and holds 20% of the global market in this area and it uses this fact to great advantage for image building. It operates the ampm convenience store chain in the US and other countries and is the leading producer of wind power. It is also involved in funding local and international politics. It gave 5 million USD to democrats and republicans in 1990 and spent 16 million USD in lobbing at the US Congress. The moral of the story is that it is not as clean as it claims, nor concerned with the lives of common people unless it serves its purpose or national interest.
BP in its regional spill plan for the Gulf of Mexico and site plan for the Deepwater Horizon rig understated the dangers and overstated its preparedness in the eventuality of a leak. Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal criticized BP for being ‘reactive’ and not ‘proactive’ from the very beginning. Now BP’s report is examined quite critically and it has been discovered that an expert professor listed in its 2009 response plan died in 2005. It lists walruses, sea otters, sea lions and seals as “sensitive biological resources” when none inhabit the Gulf of Mexico. Also names and phone numbers of marine specialists and marine network officers in Louisiana and Florida are not correct. The Justice Department has to find evidence that BP destroyed key documents or lied to the government (The Daily Yomiuri, June 11, 2010).
Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate social responsibility is one of the modern movements like environmental or tribal movements that have become the buzz word in both business and academic circles. Both businessmen and academics are cashing upon the divine benefits of CSR making more money for their companies and jobs for their departments. Middle level managers and professors have extolled about the virtues of CSR with other buzz words such as people friendly, eco friendly and sustainable. We have come to hear about the unselfishly egalitarian aspects of CSR. It is really a wondrous transformation of the greed-driven capitalist economy of which the corporate system is a byproduct.
Most critics of CSR are not against it per se but against the recent hype associated with it as a panacea of all corporate evils. It is hard to believe that companies are out there not to make profit. We are not talking of basket cases but any company worth its salt aggressively markets itself to make real profit. And what’s wrong in it. Companies are floated for this very purpose both by the shareholders and managers. But in a changed climate of political advocacy of human rights against corporate greed, CSR seems to a new combative tool for companies to be both politically correct and make money as usual. The problem however is that if business corporations give an inch they take a mile.
Definitions and Objections to CSR
In the United States CSR is seen as philanthropy while others see it as improving society, workforce and government. There are arguments in favor of CSR where it is believed that it can support the social fabric of society and promote responsible business practices. But CSR is usually presented as a marketing strategy that articulates business performance rather than encompass social and ethical standards. The recent collapse of American business and manufacturing sectors has revealed the gap between CSR and actual self-regulation. Some CSR models take the company beyond the law into providing public benefits, increase sales, market shares, brand position, retain employees, reduce operating costs and increase investments (Baron, 2001 7-45). There are models of CSR that take into account competitive advantage, positioning, commitment, organizational integration, shareholder’s cooperation and self-correction. CSR helps to create a positive image of a company and brings it rich dividends. Though there are many definitions of CSR we must see CSR as the way business companies conduct their core business not the sops they give to society.
A common objection leveled against CSR comes from the advocates of the laissez faire system who complain that CSR infringes upon the human rights of company shareholders as company managers unilaterally divert company resources to society in the name of better management (Sternberg, 1999). Detractors of CSR complain that there should be a stakeholder claim in CSR as to how it is done. A business corporation should be fair and honest to both the shareholders and customers. CSR therefore depends on the model a company chooses and the reasons for its choice. If a company uses CSR for image building through philanthropy it leads to both ethical and human rights problems. You cannot give away money which ultimately belongs to someone else. On the flipside it also follows that if stakeholders possess sole rights they also should bear full responsibility when there are environmental or social disasters. However if a CSR model seeks a consensus of both stakeholders and company managers then it must become more open to the public. CSR must concentrate upon building customer relationships, attracting talented people, conducting risk management and building the company’s reputation.
Corporate Reputation and CSR
Corporate business companies such as BP or Coca Cola cannot ignore their reputation as about 90 to 95 percent of their assets are intangibles and the remainder immovable property. Big companies such as General Electric, IBM or Motorola use the rhetoric of CSR to show public responsibility and environmental concerns but while conducting hard-nosed bullying business practices are not so transparent in their dealings. A few years ago Sir John Browne of BP was praised for his aggressive promotion of BP while providing environmental leadership but now we come to know that all along BP compromised on safety costs in oil drilling. This is happening in a powerful country like the United States where both politics and laws are strong. Had it happened in a developing or a poor country, things would have been quite different. BP would have gotten away cheaply and Union Carbide once did.
CSR invariably works for companies and countries with resources and political clout. It is not for companies which are small and weak. Small companies fight for survival, cut costs to make ends meet and do not possess precious resources to waste on CSR. Nor can they follow up on legal battles if they come under the scanner. They function in a world of poverty, deprivation and loss.
Conclusion
It is no longer tenable to follow neo-classical economics of Smith, Mill and Bacon that the world is made for us and for us alone. We must eschew the economic theories of Pareto and Hayek as we can no longer treat nature as a mere variable and commodity. Depreciation of ecological assets has taken place at an increasing fast rate. Economics should no longer be about inflation, economic value of goods or maximization of income. It should take into account our natural world as property that belongs to every one of us (McNeill, Padua, Rangarajan, 2010 1-3). We must learn new lessons from ecological economics and environmental history and change the way we do business. We must rein in corporate greed by modifying corporate social responsibility (CSR) to corporate legal liability (CLL) and connect it to governmental deterrence, legal action and international treaties to scare the hell out of the merchants of greed and death who have many supporters in different parts of the world.
Union Carbide Bhopal Gas Tragedy 1984
Early this month the Indian Supreme Court passed a verdict indicting the American CEO of Union Carbide Warren Anderson who was allowed to escape to the United States twenty five years ago possibly with the connivance of either the state or central agencies in India. Now both the Congress government and state ministries are trying to escape their involvement in the murky plot. Who wanted the truth then? And who wants the truth now? The declassified CIA report of December 8, 1984 and recent revelations by the principal secretary of Rajiv Gandhi, P. C. Alexander, point to political intrigue involving both state and center in releasing Anderson. Now some leaders claim that the worsening law and order situation in Bhopal in the wake of the accident forced Chief Minister Arjun Singh to provide a safe corridor to Anderson out of the country. Some like Rajinder Puri even see the direct hand of Rajeev Gandhi himself. It seems that US President Ronald Reagan phoned Rajeev Gandhi to release Anderson. The media would like us to believe that even P. Chidambaram and Kamal Nath were campaigning for Dow Chemical to get special concessions so it could invest in India. The chief minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi criticized Sonia Gandhi for the complicity of the Congress Party in the murky affair but it has come to light that he had signed an MOU between state public sector company Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Ltd and Dow Chemicals in April 2008. This is the case of the pot calling the kettle black.
Seemingly neither the American nor the Indian establishments saw the industrial disaster as the responsibility of the MNC Union Carbide. The company was bought by Dow Chemical Company in 1999 further camouflaging accountability. Dow Chemical was the second biggest Texas polluting company in 2009 and paid 1.14 million USD on eight counts of pollution. Now it is investing again in India with the syrupy connivance of people in power.
Even after 25 years the public would like to know if it was Arjun Singh the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh or influential persons in Rajiv Gandhi’s government at the center or the prime minister himself responsible for giving a free passage to Anderson to fly back to the U.S. India has an extradition treaty with the United States and under changed circumstances today when America itself is suffering from another MNC BP, there might be possibility of bringing the fugitive CEO back to justice if India can put together enough evidence. Greenpeace believes that in the 1982 safety audit of the Bhopal factory in the US addressed thirty safety hazards. Anderson knew about them and compromised safety standards causing the death of 20,000 people and affecting 578,000 to date. To make the tragedy reprehensible the out of court settlement made Union Carbide pay a sum of 470 million USD instead of 3.5 billion initially demanded, with each victim getting a measly sum of 550 USD in 1989. In the same year Exxon oil spill in Prince William Sound Alaska forced the company to pay 5 billion USD of which it paid half. Even today there is 425 tons of hazardous waste in Bhopal left by Union Carbide that needs to be cleaned. Who will do it—Dow Chemical or the Indian state government?
Anderson now 90 years lives in a luxury home worth 900,000 USD at 929 Ocean Road, Bridgehampton, Long Island, New York. He is now less of a fugitive and more of a monarch (Sonnenfeld, 1991). It is obvious that in many cases justice delayed is justice denied. Should we stop big companies from doing business? Should we impose heavy penalty on erring foreign companies? Or should we reform the slow and cumbrous judicial system? Jeremy Kahn writing in The Faster Times calls for judicial reform rather than protectionism (Kahn, 2010). The Indian Parliament is debating a law capping liability for foreign nuclear power companies involved in disasters to pay 100 million USD a pittance when compared to the US demand of 100 billion USD from BP. Then Indian law capping liability lacks teeth and may not cover non-nuclear companies. So they can pollute as of before.
British or Beyond Petroleum
The British are desperate to save BP from going down by bringing silly arguments like BP has been a part of America since it merged with American energy Amoco in 1998 and acquired the Gulf of Mexico drilling rights (The Independent, “Cameron Warns Obama over Criticizing BP” 13 June 2010). The new British Prime Minister David Cameron has also chipped in underscoring the sustained “economic importance” of BP to both Britain and America. American President Barrack Obama however is needled by US senators, whose states have been ravaged by oil spills, to push for 100 billion USD compensation, which if realized would force BP to go bankrupt. The British media believes that Obama’s anti-British rhetoric is testing Anglo-American relations. Obama claims that American relation with Britain has not been affected. The environmental disaster caused by a British multinational company should have nothing to do with national identity but corporate liability. Obama has called BP the Swedish Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg, who earns a fat cat salary of 3.8 million USD, to the White House for consultations.
The British are cut up with Obama’s off the cuff remark that he would have fired BP’s chief executive Tony Hayward if the latter had worked for him. With US pressure rising BP may not pay its quarterly dividends which are essential to maintain equilibrium for UK pension funds. The 6.7% shares lunge in the FTSE has adversely affected pension funds in the UK. If the status quo is not altered by American pressure groups BP might only have to pay 20 to 37 billion USD provided it can be proved that BP failed to meet safety regulations in the deep sea oil drilling.
Now BP is using two kinds of dispersants manufactured by Nalco—Corexit 9500 and Corexit EC 9527A. Corexit (deodorized kerosene) is banned in the United Kingdom as even 2.61 ppm can kill 50% of fish in 96 hours. The dispersants turn the oil slick into small particulates which settle on the sea bed and make things look clean on the surface, but they destroy marine life below. Corexit however is on the approved list of dispersants by the US Environmental Protection Agency though the EPA has advised BP to use less toxic dispersants. BP however refused citing lack of availability. The toxicity of the present dispersants increase when they get mixed with oil. BP has links with Nalco. BPs has poured 1,621,000 gallons of dispersants in the Gulf of Mexico to contain the oil spill and has ordered for an additional 805,000 gallons. The ill effects of the dispersant on humans can result in various diseases, reduced growth, kidney failure and death.
The British rely on BP as the national icon and savior of British deficit. Last year BP paid 1.4 billion dollars in taxes on its profits. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is too far away for the ordinary Britons but the pension funds and BP dividends are closer home.
It stands to logic that a “large, wealthy company” which is eager to pay 1.8 billion quarterly dividends to its shareholders and whose last year’s sales and operating revenues were 239 billion USD, should pay 100 billion USD in damages. Since the oil spill began on April 22, 2010 till June 15, 2010, 55 days have gone by. And if we estimate the oil spill at 50,000 barrels a day it comes to 27500000 gallons. If each gallon spill is fined 4300 USD as the US is suggesting the actual fine would come to 118,250,000,000 that is about 118 billion USD. These figures may not be exact and are vigorously contested by BP which would like to work with half the numbers. However the end is not in sight. According to BP officials it would not be before August that the spill can be contained. If this is true then the figure could be doubled and BP would have to pay damages amounting to all the revenue it earned through sales last year.
Both the American government and public are hopeful that since earlier erring companies like Texaco was forced into bankruptcy in 1987 after paying 10.53 billion USD claim, BP too would have to cough up huge sums. And BP’s reputation does not help a wee bit whatever they claim to the contrary in those daily briefings on the Internet. BP is known as one of the “ten worst corporations” in the world when evaluated on their environmental pollution and infringement of their human rights record. It also has the dubious distinction of being the most polluting company in the United States vis-à-vis EPA toxic release data of 1991. It has been fined 1.7 million USD for burning polluted gases at its Ohio refinery. It also paid 10 million USD fine to the EPA in July 2000 for mismanaging the US oil refineries. The US Public Interest Research Group or PIRG claims that between Jan 1997 and March 1998, BP was involved in 104 oil spills. Obviously a lot of wealthy shareholders, 37% on the British and 31 % on the American side do not want this to happen.
BP’s propaganda regarding its CSR is highly effective as it tries to highlight only the positive aspects of what it has done. In the past BP has invested some money in alternate fuel and green technologies but it has been criticized for proving private funds to public universities of the California Bay Area and closing down its green technology office in London. Its critics call its green technology projects as green washing projects. BP is also a leading producer of solar panels and holds 20% of the global market in this area and it uses this fact to great advantage for image building. It operates the ampm convenience store chain in the US and other countries and is the leading producer of wind power. It is also involved in funding local and international politics. It gave 5 million USD to democrats and republicans in 1990 and spent 16 million USD in lobbing at the US Congress. The moral of the story is that it is not as clean as it claims, nor concerned with the lives of common people unless it serves its purpose or national interest.
BP in its regional spill plan for the Gulf of Mexico and site plan for the Deepwater Horizon rig understated the dangers and overstated its preparedness in the eventuality of a leak. Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal criticized BP for being ‘reactive’ and not ‘proactive’ from the very beginning. Now BP’s report is examined quite critically and it has been discovered that an expert professor listed in its 2009 response plan died in 2005. It lists walruses, sea otters, sea lions and seals as “sensitive biological resources” when none inhabit the Gulf of Mexico. Also names and phone numbers of marine specialists and marine network officers in Louisiana and Florida are not correct. The Justice Department has to find evidence that BP destroyed key documents or lied to the government (The Daily Yomiuri, June 11, 2010).
Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate social responsibility is one of the modern movements like environmental or tribal movements that have become the buzz word in both business and academic circles. Both businessmen and academics are cashing upon the divine benefits of CSR making more money for their companies and jobs for their departments. Middle level managers and professors have extolled about the virtues of CSR with other buzz words such as people friendly, eco friendly and sustainable. We have come to hear about the unselfishly egalitarian aspects of CSR. It is really a wondrous transformation of the greed-driven capitalist economy of which the corporate system is a byproduct.
Most critics of CSR are not against it per se but against the recent hype associated with it as a panacea of all corporate evils. It is hard to believe that companies are out there not to make profit. We are not talking of basket cases but any company worth its salt aggressively markets itself to make real profit. And what’s wrong in it. Companies are floated for this very purpose both by the shareholders and managers. But in a changed climate of political advocacy of human rights against corporate greed, CSR seems to a new combative tool for companies to be both politically correct and make money as usual. The problem however is that if business corporations give an inch they take a mile.
Definitions and Objections to CSR
In the United States CSR is seen as philanthropy while others see it as improving society, workforce and government. There are arguments in favor of CSR where it is believed that it can support the social fabric of society and promote responsible business practices. But CSR is usually presented as a marketing strategy that articulates business performance rather than encompass social and ethical standards. The recent collapse of American business and manufacturing sectors has revealed the gap between CSR and actual self-regulation. Some CSR models take the company beyond the law into providing public benefits, increase sales, market shares, brand position, retain employees, reduce operating costs and increase investments (Baron, 2001 7-45). There are models of CSR that take into account competitive advantage, positioning, commitment, organizational integration, shareholder’s cooperation and self-correction. CSR helps to create a positive image of a company and brings it rich dividends. Though there are many definitions of CSR we must see CSR as the way business companies conduct their core business not the sops they give to society.
A common objection leveled against CSR comes from the advocates of the laissez faire system who complain that CSR infringes upon the human rights of company shareholders as company managers unilaterally divert company resources to society in the name of better management (Sternberg, 1999). Detractors of CSR complain that there should be a stakeholder claim in CSR as to how it is done. A business corporation should be fair and honest to both the shareholders and customers. CSR therefore depends on the model a company chooses and the reasons for its choice. If a company uses CSR for image building through philanthropy it leads to both ethical and human rights problems. You cannot give away money which ultimately belongs to someone else. On the flipside it also follows that if stakeholders possess sole rights they also should bear full responsibility when there are environmental or social disasters. However if a CSR model seeks a consensus of both stakeholders and company managers then it must become more open to the public. CSR must concentrate upon building customer relationships, attracting talented people, conducting risk management and building the company’s reputation.
Corporate Reputation and CSR
Corporate business companies such as BP or Coca Cola cannot ignore their reputation as about 90 to 95 percent of their assets are intangibles and the remainder immovable property. Big companies such as General Electric, IBM or Motorola use the rhetoric of CSR to show public responsibility and environmental concerns but while conducting hard-nosed bullying business practices are not so transparent in their dealings. A few years ago Sir John Browne of BP was praised for his aggressive promotion of BP while providing environmental leadership but now we come to know that all along BP compromised on safety costs in oil drilling. This is happening in a powerful country like the United States where both politics and laws are strong. Had it happened in a developing or a poor country, things would have been quite different. BP would have gotten away cheaply and Union Carbide once did.
CSR invariably works for companies and countries with resources and political clout. It is not for companies which are small and weak. Small companies fight for survival, cut costs to make ends meet and do not possess precious resources to waste on CSR. Nor can they follow up on legal battles if they come under the scanner. They function in a world of poverty, deprivation and loss.
Conclusion
It is no longer tenable to follow neo-classical economics of Smith, Mill and Bacon that the world is made for us and for us alone. We must eschew the economic theories of Pareto and Hayek as we can no longer treat nature as a mere variable and commodity. Depreciation of ecological assets has taken place at an increasing fast rate. Economics should no longer be about inflation, economic value of goods or maximization of income. It should take into account our natural world as property that belongs to every one of us (McNeill, Padua, Rangarajan, 2010 1-3). We must learn new lessons from ecological economics and environmental history and change the way we do business. We must rein in corporate greed by modifying corporate social responsibility (CSR) to corporate legal liability (CLL) and connect it to governmental deterrence, legal action and international treaties to scare the hell out of the merchants of greed and death who have many supporters in different parts of the world.
ARE YOU SINCERELY READY TO CATCH TAX THEIVES ?
- AN APPEL TO UNION FINANCE MINISTER & KARNATAKA STATE FINANCE MINISTER
- AN APPEL TO UNION FINANCE MINISTER & KARNATAKA STATE FINANCE MINISTER
In india , tax compliance is worse. In our criminal justice system, there is rigorous imprisonment for a pick-pocketer stealing Rs.10. even the authorities spend thousands of rupees in legally prosecuting him & the thief spends a year or more as punishment behind bars. Where as there is no commensurate investigation nor legal prosecution nor punishment for corporate thieves , evading tax to the tune of crores of rupees. In contrast, those tax thieves pay a part of that booty to the ministers & political parties and get crores of rupees tax exemptions , incentives from the government. Government is rewarding corporate criminals.
The tax officials of central & state governments are hand in glove with these corporate criminals & traders. For a price, they are helping corporates & traders in evading tax. Most of the tax officials are wealthy & leading luxurious lifestyles , much beyond the scope of their legal income. The black money thus generated every year by tax evasion , is many times more than our total annual budget allocation. As a result, all our fiscal reforms fail & inflation is soaring. This black money is the source of illegal funding of political parties , terrorist outfits & underworld. It is a greater threat to national unity & integrity.
Both the central government & karnataka state government have failed to collect the full , actual tax dues from corporates & traders. As a result , the governments don't have enough money in their coffers even to provide basic needs like health care , education , safe drinking water , etc to the poor & needy. For every Rs.100 tax evaded , one poor patient is dying without medical care , 10 poor persons lack education , 100 persons don't get safe drinking water , 100 persons barely survive on a single piece meal per day , 20 persons starve. Most of The government officials , ministers & people's representatives who have deliberately failed in their duties of tax collection & welfare of poor citizens , SHAMELESSLY indulge in luxurious lifestyle at the expense of poor tax payer . they live in paltial bungalows , chauffer driven AC cars , all living food expenses paid by exchequer , dine at 5-star hotels , only drink bottled mineral water , eat non-vegetarian dishes , drink alcohol sitting before mahatma gandhi's photograph & preaching mahatma's ideals. Mahatma preached & practiced simple living , vegetarianism & he was teto teller , he paid for his expenses from his earnings . these public servants are parasites , who are making merry at the expense of tax payer.
Some non government organisations ( NGO) have formed trusts and under the aegis of those trusts are running educational institutions , hospitals , community halls , etc , in the name of providing free / subsidised services like education , health care , etc to the poor. It is only in record books , they conduct fake medical camps , self employment training camps . in practice they are running these educational institutions , hospitals & community halls as commercial enterprises & collecting huge fees. they are not even remitting full fees collected to the trust account & swindling the money. no outsider is allowed to become a member of these NGOs , only their cronies & their family members are in these trusts.
Numerous NGOs promoted by religious bodies , mutts are swindling public & government money to the tune of crores of rupees. Nobody dares to question the heads , pontiffs of these mutts , as at his feet VVIPs , ministers fall down. These religious bodies are hot beds of fundamentalism , terrorism & mafia. Where is the accountability of religious bodies & political parties in india ?
Inspite of bringing specific cases to the notice of authorities , they are mum ? hereby , HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH offers it's services ( subject to conditions ) to the governments of india & karnataka , in apprehending the criminals – tax evaders. Are you ready Mr. Mukherjee & Mr.Gowda ?
QUESTIONS FOR MONEY – PARLIAMENTARY ACTS/LEGISLATIONS FOR
????
-improper functioning of democracy in india
the vohra committee report has proved the criminalisation of
politics in india. There are many number of criminals in the parliament &
state legislatures. Some of those criminals are cabinet ministers as well as
members of vital parliamentary committees. Thereby, they are in a position to
manipulate , enact laws favouring , benefitting the criminals their cronies.
Just see how the GOI gave export incentive of Rs.1800 crore to reliance petroleum although it didn't even export a barrel. Reliance infocom & tata teleservices were CDMA mobile service providers & have paid license fee of few crores only equal to landline fees without any competitive bidding . They were supposed to provide mobile service to operate like fixed phones within a radius of 40k.m. however they were providing service like mobile service from one state to another like GSM mobile service providers. By this act of RIC & TTSL , the GSM providers who have paid thousands of license fee in competitive bidding were economically hurt , the dispute went to court. The court was on the verge of pronouncing it's verdict awarding damages worth Rs.18000 crore to GSM players & Rs. 3000 crore of license fees with penalty to GOI. The government announced a unified telecom license regime with retrospective effect. Thereby, the GOI lost thousands of crores of rupees & the share holders of GSM players lost thousands of crores. Onceagain the RIC was charged by PSU bsnl THAT RELIANCE IS RE-ROUTING INTERNATIONAL CALLS AS LOCAL CALLS & SWINDLING THE GOI. This time too, GOI bailed it out. during the dispute between ambani brothers the younger ambani mr. Anil ambani director of reliance himself has stated that for the favours received from the GOI , the company gifted some shares to then IT & COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER mr. Pramod mahajan.
Various indian & multinational companies are looting indian exchequer to the tune of thousands of crores of rupees , through lobbying / bribing.
In india, indirect democracy is the form of governance. In this form, people's representatives are bound to raise the questions , issues concerning their constituents on their behalf , on the floor of the house. However the sad part in india even after 58 years of democracy , is the lobbying is at it's peak. The lobbying is a gentleman's white collared crook's way of forming favour seeker's group , creating a corpus to pay lumpsum bribe & influencing decision making. The people's representatives are bound to represent their people first , then their party & party think tanks. India has come to this sorry state of affairs , widespread corruption , huge black economy & rampant poverty, all due to inefficient legislations & enforcements. These think tanks & IAS lobby, consider themselves as most super brains on earth & gives out suggestions . the present state of affairs is a barometer of their brilliance. These think tanks & IAS lobby are the hand maidens of lobbyists / bribers.
Just see how the GOI gave export incentive of Rs.1800 crore to reliance petroleum although it didn't even export a barrel. Reliance infocom & tata teleservices were CDMA mobile service providers & have paid license fee of few crores only equal to landline fees without any competitive bidding . They were supposed to provide mobile service to operate like fixed phones within a radius of 40k.m. however they were providing service like mobile service from one state to another like GSM mobile service providers. By this act of RIC & TTSL , the GSM providers who have paid thousands of license fee in competitive bidding were economically hurt , the dispute went to court. The court was on the verge of pronouncing it's verdict awarding damages worth Rs.18000 crore to GSM players & Rs. 3000 crore of license fees with penalty to GOI. The government announced a unified telecom license regime with retrospective effect. Thereby, the GOI lost thousands of crores of rupees & the share holders of GSM players lost thousands of crores. Onceagain the RIC was charged by PSU bsnl THAT RELIANCE IS RE-ROUTING INTERNATIONAL CALLS AS LOCAL CALLS & SWINDLING THE GOI. This time too, GOI bailed it out. during the dispute between ambani brothers the younger ambani mr. Anil ambani director of reliance himself has stated that for the favours received from the GOI , the company gifted some shares to then IT & COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER mr. Pramod mahajan.
Various indian & multinational companies are looting indian exchequer to the tune of thousands of crores of rupees , through lobbying / bribing.
In india, indirect democracy is the form of governance. In this form, people's representatives are bound to raise the questions , issues concerning their constituents on their behalf , on the floor of the house. However the sad part in india even after 58 years of democracy , is the lobbying is at it's peak. The lobbying is a gentleman's white collared crook's way of forming favour seeker's group , creating a corpus to pay lumpsum bribe & influencing decision making. The people's representatives are bound to represent their people first , then their party & party think tanks. India has come to this sorry state of affairs , widespread corruption , huge black economy & rampant poverty, all due to inefficient legislations & enforcements. These think tanks & IAS lobby, consider themselves as most super brains on earth & gives out suggestions . the present state of affairs is a barometer of their brilliance. These think tanks & IAS lobby are the hand maidens of lobbyists / bribers.
|
Xeroxing Corruption
By Ashutosh Sinha
Special to India Resource Center
September 30, 2002
Special to India Resource Center
September 30, 2002
Not many in India might have actually seen the field gun from
Bofors AB, either standing sentinel on the borders or in operation. The guns
played a key role in the skirmishes at Kargil in 1999. The same anonymity does
not hold good for Xerox, which has now entered the dictionary as a verb in its
own right for photocopying documents.
Since its name has become synonymous with the allegations of
kickbacks, few companies would like to be compared with Bofors. But since the
deal was a big commercial success for arms dealers, some companies would,
perhaps, be tempted to employ the same tactics as the Bofors middlemen.
The Swedish firm Bofors AB allegedly paid Rs.640 million ($13
million) in bribes to middlemen to get the contracts for the deal signed in
1986. Nearly a decade later, Enron India spent US$ 20 million in
"educating" Indian bureaucrats about the role of private companies in
power generation, an euphemism for bribes. Two telecom companies, Essar and
Swisscom, were alleged to have paid a former minister, Sukh Ram, a hefty amount
during early 1996 to help change the original license conditions, which it had
signed with the Department of Telecommunications. There was no case against Sukh
Ram, simply because this deal was never investigated.
Significantly, none of the allegations made above have yet been
proven in a court of law.
Xerox India was treading on familiar path, something which its US
headquarters got to know later. According to the parent company's own
admission, which emerged during its audit, it paid over $600,000 as bribes to
various government employees to win contracts. In essence, the modus operandi
was just a 'photocopy' of the way some other companies operate.
Under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), it is a serious
criminal offence for a US company to pay bribes in a foreign country to obtain
contracts. Being managed by the BK Modi group, one of Indias oldest family run
business empires, at the time when the bribes were paid, it is now like a sword
hanging at the neck of Xerox. The BK Modi group has denied having paid any
bribes. Xerox Modicorp Limited (as the company is now called) completes 19
years in India this September. It changed its name from Modi Xerox Limited to
Xerox Modicorp Limited in 2000.
The Indian government was quick to order an inquiry. A promise
that accompanied the order was that the inquiry would be completed in two
weeks. Over a month later, the two weeks are not yet over. Now, the
million-dollar question - for a company that calls itself 'The Document
Company' - is there enough documentary evidence to prosecute the company?
The Department of Company Affairs (DCA), the arm of the government
that wields the stick to ensure that companies meet their stated objectives and
do not dupe the shareholders, is looking into the details. Xerox was not duping
shareholders, much the same way as the military hardware company AB Bofors.
Both were, in fact, trying to reward their shareholders by giving the extra
edge to their sales team by "taking care" of those taking a final
decision on the purchase of their products. DCA is still not sure whether the
bribes were actually paid or if the amount was pocketed by Modi or his men.
There is a stark difference between the two cases, though. Bofors
is a European company, Xerox an American. Their products are proverbially as
different as chalk and cheese - one sold military hardware, the other office
automation products. While the Bofors payoffs involved the government official
right at the top in the government, the Xerox payoffs appear to have been made
to the operations level people in government. Besides, the nature of arms deals
is such that the best deal has to be sewn in one shot. Office automation
products are regularly purchased by companies and governments. So, if a few
people can be identified, their palms can be greased regularly to put the product.
The agents who helped Bofors are still trying to block investigations and any
information into their money laundering. The amount involved in the Xerox case
is far smaller.
Xerox, however, does deserve a pat on the back for having the
courage to admit the payoffs in public.
There are some parallels between the two companies. Bofors money
found its way to exotic places that you would find difficult to locate on the
world map - Luxembourg, Bahamas, Liechtenstein, Channel Islands. The Xerox
India payoffs did not have such exotic addresses. Two of the companies to which
payments were made had slum areas of Delhi as their addresses while two others
were located in the western Indian state of Gujarat.
While the Bofors deal had strong political linkages, there is talk
of the involvement of a Samajwadi Party politician, who has interests in the
paper business, in the Xerox case. That allegation is yet to be probed, though.
AE Services, Svenska, Lotus, Tulip and Mont Blanc are some of the
names of bank accounts that are associated with the alleged Bofors payoffs. The
money has gone into a variety of accounts before disappearing various pockets.
Officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), India's premier
investigating agency, suspect that these people include the late Win Chadha, an
Italian called Ottavio Quattrochchi and the Hinduja brothers. If the Xerox
India deal had been bigger, with international ramifications, it would not have
chosen names like Charu Paper Ltd., Chadha Paper Ltd., Pioneer Enterprises and
Elite Commercial Services.
At the time when these bribes were paid, the company was
controlled by the BK Modi group, which owned majority shares in the joint
venture. When Xerox acquired control of the company (it now owns 68 per cent
while BK Modi controls 28 per cent in the joint venture) in 2000, it ordered an
inspection of the books by the audit firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers, which raised
disturbing questions. The audit firm said that it was not sure the
organizations existed and, if they did, who owns or controls them. BK Modi
Group has interests in telecom, entertainment and manufacturing.
Xerox has over 50 per cent market share in photocopiers in India.
1998 was a landmark year for the photocopier industry. Of the estimated 40,000
machines sold that year, an estimated 27,000 were Xerox machines. However, that
was an aberration and nearly 30,000 machines are sold in the market each year
at present. Nearly 60 per cent of the sales are made to government
organisations.
Incidentally, the bribes are alleged to have been paid in 1998 and
1999. In 1998, the 15-year tie-up between Modis and Xerox ended. Xerox had
entered India after a tie up with the BK Modi Group and Modi Xerox Limited was
incorporated in 1983.
The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), which had looked into the
Bofors deal before CBI started its investigations of bribery charges, had
similarly not given a clean chit to the Rajiv Gandhi government. The government
survived the day but since then, the Congress party has never won a majority in
the Indian Parliament. Bofors has also entered India's political lexicon as a
synonym for bribery.
DCA officials are tight-lipped about the direction in which their
Xerox investigation is meandering. These are just four names that have tumbled
out of the closet. Reports suggest that it is a web of 85 companies through
which payments have been made. The challenge before DCA is to verify whether
payments were made to individuals in the government or did some officials of
Modi Xerox (as the company was then called) pocket the money.
While it is still to be established where the money actually went,
DCA officials admit in private that siphoning money out of the company is a
routine affair. Just like every official worth his salt in the CBI knows that
big arms deals do have an element of an underhand deal.
Since payoffs are now a part of business, this is where the
interest of the average person comes in. Hapless investors have seen scores of
cases where the companies get sick and promoters healthier by the day.
For all the arms deal that have happened in India, whose defence
spending is over US$ 14 billion every year, only one case has been brought to
light. None have been prosecuted. Of nearly 7,000 publicly listed companies in
India, a little over 2,000 actively trade on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The
rest are companies which have turned sick, while some of their promoters get
healthier.
Radia lobbied to get Raja telecom ministry
Union Communications Minister A. Raja has been caught on tape
lobbying with a corporate PR agent for a place in the Manmohan Singh cabinet
during the second term of the UPA.
Headlines Today is in exclusive possession of taped conversations between Raja and powerful corporate lobbyist Nira Radia just days before the swearing-in of the cabinet.
The conversations, which were recorded by investigators for the income tax department, raise serious issues about ministerial propriety.
The income tax sleuths had sought permission to tap the telephone of Radia, who was being investigated by the CBI and the income tax department in the telecom spectrum scam.
Radia is one of India's most influential power-brokers and has the biggest corporates of India as clients.
These conversations were recorded over 300 days, starting from August 20, 2008. Raja was lobbying hard to become the next telecom minister and was being helped in this endeavour by Radia.
Here are excerpts from a conversation recorded on May 24, 2009 at 11.05 am.
Raja: My name is cleared?
Radia: Yeah, your case was cleared last night itself. No, what is happening with Daya?
Raja: Textiles or fertilisers?
Radia: Not for Daya though, Azhagiri or Daya only one can come in?
Raja: No, two can come...
Radia: Both?
Radia: Baalu, will be the problem, I hope.
Radia: It will be difficult for the leader to justify three family members.
Raja: (laughs) Yeah, but everybody knows...
Radia: No she said that, Kani told me last night, that is what her father told her yesterday, that for him to justify three family members would be very difficult; he recognises that problem...
Raja: Let us see what we can do...let us fight.
This was how Radia informed Raja that his name had been cleared for the telecom minister's post. The conversation had been recorded just four days before Raja's name was officially announced as the UPA's telecom minister.
So how does a corporate lobbyist get to know who is getting which portfolio? And why was Raja discussing portfolios with a corporate lobbyist?
Not just Raja, the tapes have Radia talking to DMK chief M. Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi as well.
In these conversations, Kanimozhi - referred to as Kani - is heard telling Radia that the DMK must get the telecom portfolio. Here are excerpts from the conversation recorded on May 21, 2009 at 8:41 pm.
Kani: Hello
Radia: PM has already clarified that the deal has not been done. They are still in the middle of discussing it.
Kani: They've already promised to give us telecom...but it cannot become that they shift...
Radia: What?
Kani: They have already told us that they will give us telecom. Now it shouldn't be given to him because he's going around planting stories.
Radia: He's planting it on all the channels while you were on the plane.
Kani: Ya I know that.
Radia: But Kanni, the PM has just made a statement that I have no problems with Raja and Baalu and they are my esteemed colleagues.
Kani: He can make a statement. But whoever's going to come and talk to dad shouldn't talk otherwise.. See what people say outside and what actually they mean is different... And all of us know that in politics.
Not just telecom, Radia and Kanimozhi had a long conversation about who is getting what portfolio. What was surprising is that Radia seemed to know exactly what is happening and who was getting which portfolio.
Here are more excerpts from the conversations:
Radia: Kani there's feedback from the Congress. They say we recognise that the problem with the DMK is an internal problem. It's a problem between the family. It's a problem between their own people. They have given us a list of five people. This is not acceptable to us.
Kani: Ya
Radia: It is for them to resolve. We have told them what is the best that we can do.
Kani: Three and four...
Radia: We appreciate that the dialogue has broken down but it is not for us to get back to them. As far as we are concerned, Maran has been calling Ghulam Nabi Azad on the half hour demanding all sorts of things and they have told him that there is no point in you calling us.
Kani: But what is the demand he's got.
Radia: He has been making the same demands that you give us five portfolios or we will not join or give us railways, otherwise he has also demanded coal and mines. So they are saying as far as we are concerned this is an internal DMK problem. It has nothing to do with the Congress at all. They have taken a decision that it is for Karuna to decide who he wants and who he doesn't want in the formula. That has been provided to him. It's up to Karuna to decide but they feel that there are far too many people calling him including Maran.
The question is, is it proper for a senior leader of the DMK and a minister in the past UPA government to be talking to a known corporate lobbyist? Why is it that the lobbyist seems to know everything about the allocation of portfolios, and long before the information is made public?
Headlines Today is in exclusive possession of taped conversations between Raja and powerful corporate lobbyist Nira Radia just days before the swearing-in of the cabinet.
The conversations, which were recorded by investigators for the income tax department, raise serious issues about ministerial propriety.
The income tax sleuths had sought permission to tap the telephone of Radia, who was being investigated by the CBI and the income tax department in the telecom spectrum scam.
Radia is one of India's most influential power-brokers and has the biggest corporates of India as clients.
These conversations were recorded over 300 days, starting from August 20, 2008. Raja was lobbying hard to become the next telecom minister and was being helped in this endeavour by Radia.
Here are excerpts from a conversation recorded on May 24, 2009 at 11.05 am.
Raja: My name is cleared?
Radia: Yeah, your case was cleared last night itself. No, what is happening with Daya?
Raja: Textiles or fertilisers?
Radia: Not for Daya though, Azhagiri or Daya only one can come in?
Raja: No, two can come...
Radia: Both?
Radia: Baalu, will be the problem, I hope.
Radia: It will be difficult for the leader to justify three family members.
Raja: (laughs) Yeah, but everybody knows...
Radia: No she said that, Kani told me last night, that is what her father told her yesterday, that for him to justify three family members would be very difficult; he recognises that problem...
Raja: Let us see what we can do...let us fight.
This was how Radia informed Raja that his name had been cleared for the telecom minister's post. The conversation had been recorded just four days before Raja's name was officially announced as the UPA's telecom minister.
So how does a corporate lobbyist get to know who is getting which portfolio? And why was Raja discussing portfolios with a corporate lobbyist?
Not just Raja, the tapes have Radia talking to DMK chief M. Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi as well.
In these conversations, Kanimozhi - referred to as Kani - is heard telling Radia that the DMK must get the telecom portfolio. Here are excerpts from the conversation recorded on May 21, 2009 at 8:41 pm.
Kani: Hello
Radia: PM has already clarified that the deal has not been done. They are still in the middle of discussing it.
Kani: They've already promised to give us telecom...but it cannot become that they shift...
Radia: What?
Kani: They have already told us that they will give us telecom. Now it shouldn't be given to him because he's going around planting stories.
Radia: He's planting it on all the channels while you were on the plane.
Kani: Ya I know that.
Radia: But Kanni, the PM has just made a statement that I have no problems with Raja and Baalu and they are my esteemed colleagues.
Kani: He can make a statement. But whoever's going to come and talk to dad shouldn't talk otherwise.. See what people say outside and what actually they mean is different... And all of us know that in politics.
Not just telecom, Radia and Kanimozhi had a long conversation about who is getting what portfolio. What was surprising is that Radia seemed to know exactly what is happening and who was getting which portfolio.
Here are more excerpts from the conversations:
Radia: Kani there's feedback from the Congress. They say we recognise that the problem with the DMK is an internal problem. It's a problem between the family. It's a problem between their own people. They have given us a list of five people. This is not acceptable to us.
Kani: Ya
Radia: It is for them to resolve. We have told them what is the best that we can do.
Kani: Three and four...
Radia: We appreciate that the dialogue has broken down but it is not for us to get back to them. As far as we are concerned, Maran has been calling Ghulam Nabi Azad on the half hour demanding all sorts of things and they have told him that there is no point in you calling us.
Kani: But what is the demand he's got.
Radia: He has been making the same demands that you give us five portfolios or we will not join or give us railways, otherwise he has also demanded coal and mines. So they are saying as far as we are concerned this is an internal DMK problem. It has nothing to do with the Congress at all. They have taken a decision that it is for Karuna to decide who he wants and who he doesn't want in the formula. That has been provided to him. It's up to Karuna to decide but they feel that there are far too many people calling him including Maran.
The question is, is it proper for a senior leader of the DMK and a minister in the past UPA government to be talking to a known corporate lobbyist? Why is it that the lobbyist seems to know everything about the allocation of portfolios, and long before the information is made public?
REAL STORY OF Late DHIRUBHAI AMBANI
of Reliance Industries
The CAG draft
report that nails the connivance between Government agencies
and Reliance Industries Ltd. leading to huge losses to the Government exchequer
is yet another example of the power of corporates in the UPA Government to
subvert rules and regulations in their favour.
The CAG has noted that the former
Director-General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) permitted Reliance to inflate its
“development costs” on the gas extraction in the D6 block of KG basin from 2.47
billion dollars to a whopping 8.84 billion dollars. This money taken by RIL
affected the revenues of the Government. Government should prosecute the former
DGH without any delay.
The Government’s connivance with RIL has a
direct impact on the aam aadmi because increased claims of development cost get
reflected in the price of gas given to consumers and also affect the prices of
fertilizer and power. Letters have been written to the Prime Minister to
institute an independent enquiry into the complaint of artificial jacking up of
the capital expenditure by RIL for D6 KG Basin and its hasty approval by the
concerned authority to find out the actual cost before gas price is fixed.
In a repeat of the 2-G scam, the Prime
Minister’s silence on the issue, has again exposed the UPA Government’s
acquiescence to corporate manipulation.
Related posts:
- The Great Billion Dollar
Drug Scam
- Supreme Snub : Court SIT A
Major Embarrassment For Govt
- Now A Petroleum Scam?
- The -Reliance KG Gas Scam
Prabir Purkayastha, Newsclick
- Way to Rural Self
Reliance: National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM)
- Demand For JPC On Spectrum
Scam :Go Beyond Rhetoric
- THE ADARSH SOCIETY SCAM A
Shocking Exposure of Congress govt Venality – Ashok Dhawale
- SUPREME COURT VERDICT ON
KG BASIN GAS -Dipankar Mukherjee
- AMBANIS ROW : GOVT HAS
LAST WORD ON KG BASIN GAS PRICE : SC
- POOL PRICING FOR KG BASIN
GAS TO HARM ANDHRA PRADESH INTERESTS
- PRODUCTION OF GAS IN KG
BASIN
- FINDINGS OF ICAI IN SATYAM
SCAM CASE
RELIANCE INDUSTRIES LIMITED - WHERE IS ACCOUNTABILITY?
Dear mukesh & anil ambani,
The reliance industries has always got a favourable treatment from the state & central governments.there are allegations that ,
1.years ago, the central government gave import concessions for import of certain raw materials of textile sector ,which hugely benefitted the P.F.Y & TEXTILE projects of your's ie reliance industries.
2.the O.N.G.C which has painstakingly surveyed the oil & gas reserves & prepared a list of lists,gave that list & you got godavari basin oil & gas project from the government .O.N.G.C could have developed it & earned millions.
3.few months back you were charged both by the government & cellular operators (GSM) that you are giving S.T.D & ROAMING FACILITIES to your reliance phone subscribers.your's was only a W.L.L. they even claimed that you are misusing a legal loophole & causing crores of losses to the government & other GSM operators. however while the issue was before the T.R.A.I, the trai legalized your actions by announcing unified licence for telecom operators.
4.now you are charged by the government of re-routing ISD CALLS as local calls,thereby causing crores of losses to the government & BSNL.this time also you may get the reprieve from the government. the government ,if a commonman does not pay his electric bills in time slaps interest & cuts down the electric supply immediately.
however the same government ,even if your company has been alleged of causing crores of rupees losses to the government & other players, always enacts favourable laws for you like a SANTA CLAUS.
WILL YOU PLEASE CLARIFY mr.mukesh ambani & mr.anil ambani?
the TRAI announced unified licence regime in haste that too with retrospective effects.so all the charges against reliance were dropped. in the same vein as unified licence got retrospective effect , why not the government re-imburse the differece amount out of hefty fees collected from other cellular operators ? take the reliance fees as bench mark.anyway , finally commonman is the looser.
edited , printed , published & owned by NAGARAJA.M.R. @ : LIG-2 / 761 , HUDCO FIRST STAGE , OPP WATER WORKS OFFICE , LAKSHMIKANTANAGAR ,HEBBAL ,MYSORE -570017 INDIA cell : 91 9341820313
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