Size of corruption Rs 1,555 thousand cr in last decade: study

New Delhi, Jul 17 (PTI) The menace of corruption in India
is pegged at Rs 1,555 thousand crore in the last decade and
majority of it has been laundered out of India using illicit
gateways, a recent study has claimed.
According to a first of its kind report on 'Ascertaining
size of corruption in India with respect to money laundering',
an individual spent over Rs 2,000 as a cost of corruption in
2009, which is 260 per cent higher than the amount borne by
a citizen ten years back.
"In the past decade, money laundered out of India was at
least Rs 1,886 thousand crores or USD 419 billion. This
quantification of the laundering is worked out on the
most pessimistic manner and by considering the global
parameters," it said.
"If the Gross Domestic Product-based money laundering
model is translated to quantify the corruption, then the size
of corruption in the last decade is Rs 1,555 thousand crore or
USD 345 billion in India," the report said.
The study was conducted by a Pune-based company
Indiaforensic, which has pioneered in fraud examination,
security, risk management and forensic accounting research and
has been for long helping the country's investigating agencies
like CBI in several high profile cases.
It is based on the analysis of scarce data available for
measuring money laundering described through three models--
property recovery, crime based and GDP based.
"The three models gave details of quantum of money
laundering. They are based on the statistics by National Crime
records Bureau (NCRB)," said Mayur Joshi, an anti-fraud
and money laundering expert and founder member of the firm
which had assisted CBI in the multi-crore Satyam scam.

According to property recovery based model developed on
the data by NCRB, the total amount of recovery from the crime
proceeds is Rs 190 crore. In total 70,773 cases were
investigated between 2000-2009.
Whereas, the total loss to the Indian economy due to the
various crimes including commercial fraud, smuggling, drug
trafficking, bank frauds, tax evasion and corruption was
pegged at Rs 22,528 crores, the study said, citing its second
model to ascertain the size of corruption.
The study, based on GDP model, estimated at Rs 1886
thousand crore the quantum of money laundering using corrupt
ways, citing international standards.
"According to studies conducted by International Monetary
Fund, it was estimated that the quantum of money laundered is
approximately 2 to 5 per cent of GDP of the world," the report
said.
Considering that 5 per cent of the amount equivalent to
the size of GDP is laundered, "it is possible to conclude that
the size of money laundered is Rs 1886 thousand crore and the
corruption in India could be more than Rs 1555 thousand
crore."
And as "the total population of India has grown up from
1.016 billion to 1.155 billion in the last decade, corruption
has grown up from Rs 836 per person per year to Rs 2,218 per
person per year," it said.
The assumptions were made taking into account the GDP
receipts between 2000 and 2009, the study said.
"Other than cooperation from different investigating and
enforcement agencies, the Securities and Exchange Board of
India, which is the stock market regulator, can play a
significant role in preventing the corruption in India," Joshi
said.
"Call centre like structure to receive the corruption
complaints from the citizens as well as the government
employees will be an added advantage," he said.