A survey has found that 52.06 per cent of Small and Medium Enterprises paid bribe to obtain essential services related to business in the year preceding the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Centre for Governance Studies in association with the Centre for International Business Enterprise carried out the survey on 800 SMEs including 400 manufacturing and 400 service sector enterprises between mid-October and mid-December 2021, according to a press release issued on Saturday.
The survey result was recently published on both CGS and CIPE web pages.
As per the study report, almost nine of ten SMEs believe corruption is pervasive in the SME sector when it comes to acquiring and renewing licences, using public utilities, obtaining Tax Identification Number and a Value Added Tax certificate in the year prior to the pandemic.
It finds that bribery was particularly prevalent in 36.4 per cent cases of obtaining trade licences and 31.8 per cent cases of renewing them.
The licence and registration authorities had to be bribed in 28.8 per cent cases, tax office in 21.6 per cent cases, local government/city corporations/municipalities in 19.5 per cent cases, property registration office in 13.5 per cent cases, environmental directorate in 12.9 per cent cases, and law enforcement agencies in 10.6 per cent cases.
According to the study, two-thirds of individuals who paid bribes felt it necessary to do so in order to acquire services and the second most popular reason was to save time.
The reasons for pervasive corruption most frequently stated by SMEs included non-enforcement of anti-corruption regulations.
Only 2.3 per cent of respondents reported complaint while more than 70 per cent of them cited a negative outcome following complaint.
Despite the government’s repeated claims of a ‘zero-tolerance’ policy, 46 per cent respondents believe that actions taken by the authorities concerned did not bring any positive impact.
A vast majority of 62.4 per cent believe that corruption is systematically well-rooted, and an even higher number of 71.3 per cent believe that resorting to corruption can increase market competitiveness.
More than half of the respondents believe that restrictive government regulations encourage corruption, and this opinion is especially more prevalent among smaller businesses, observed the study.
It said that 61 per cent of surveyed SMEs chose to bypass regulations and operated informally.
News Courtesy:
https://www.newagebd.net/article/183857/over-52pc-sme-owners-pay-bribe-survey
