Pakistan incurs an estimated, whooping two trillion rupee loss annually because of corruption. The menace is believed to be more rampant in revenue collecting departments of customs; excise and income tax.

It implies that the revenue collection can at least be doubled if the government controlled the menace. The private sector considers both, corruption and the government’s apathy, a bane for business and the economy.

“It hikes the cost of doing business, rendering goods uncompetitive in the world market. If we resist and choose not to oblige demands for gratifications, officers and their agents close ranks and punish us in a way to instill fear in the hearts of others”, a garment exporter told Dawn.

“Besides businesses have to endure added stress because of multiplicity and the complex laws and procedures weaved in tangles impossible to untangle”, he explained.

“For the productive agents to deliver growth, a surgical operation is required to get rid of the bureaucratic bulge in Pakistan which has stunted the country’s development process.

“At least officers of revenue generating departments who have amassed enough wealth to last them many lives can be sent home as it would afford them time to spend and enjoy”, commented a embittered former chairman of the Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Two weeks back a leather garment exporter visited Dawn with a stack of papers. He alleged that his export consignment was grounded when he declined to pay gratification money suggested by a customs officer at Karachi airport.

“It has been three months. I involved trade bodies and have since been running from pillar to post but the issue has not been resolved”. During a brief interview he mentioned an ombudsman decision in his favour.

The file of the case he dropped at Dawn contains copies of multiple documents in chronological order. These included written complaints, Sindh Ombudsman decision, a letter of concern from the importer of the held consignment, besides other supporting papers.

Syed Shujaat Ali, 47, after completing studies and failing to find a suitable job started his business with a paltry sum by setting up a stall at a weekly Friday bazaar in Karachi, twenty years back. With a little luck and a lot of hard work today he owns and manages a fairly big leather garment company with two units in FB Area and Korangi industrial estates and an extensive export network feeding several known European brands.

Collector Customs Manzoor Memon, who was looking after exports in the absence of Agha Jawad, who was on leave for Hajj, defended his department and termed all allegations baseless. He told Dawn that Customs was preparing to file a counter case against the decision of Sindh Ombudsman in the Sindh High Court.

Memon said that Customs does not fall in the jurisdiction of Ombudsman Sindh. “Its decisions, therefore, are not binding on a federal department”, he said.

When the name of the lady officer of customs was mentioned who allegedly asked for bribe for clearing the consignment of the said exporter at the airport Memon told Dawn that the department has never initiated an inquiry against her and that she was also on leave for Hajj and would resume her charge at airport on return.

When quizzed further Manzoor Memon excused as, he said, he was not aware of the details as exports was his temporary charge.

A high placed source in the Federal Board of Revenue accepted higher incidence of corruption in customs but dismissed the case in question as fictitious.

“The private sector is perturbed because our officers are forcing tax compliance that has irked tax and duty dodgers in the private sector”, the gentleman said mockingly.

Another case that lends support to the view for lean and clean bureaucracy to attain higher economic productivity and competitiveness relates to a sector that performed exceptionally well for the last two decades.

The relatively young local drug industry has posted progressive growth, expanding at the rate of 18 per cent currently.

From less than 20 per cent in 1980s, the industry currently caters to 70 per cent of the local demand for medicines. It has performed well in the export market on the strength of quality.

While the industry that reinvested profits to expand and modernise aiming for the next leap, the regulatory environment degenerated leading to widespread disillusionment in the sector.

“Instead of facilitating exports, we have been subjected to treatment fit for hardened smugglers. We are harassed and hounded.

Our export consignments are opened that often render them unacceptable at export destinations”, a former president of Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturer Association complained.

“We tried explaining to the government that vaccines and medicines cannot be treated like any other cargo. They are highly sensitive products that need extra care in handling to retain their shelf life. But who can explain it to FIA strongmen who tear open almost every master carton”, he told Dawn.

He said the sector has learned the hard way to avoid confrontation with the government and its many organs. The leaders and the representative body, PPMA, therefore, is trying to sort out issues amicably across the table despite unjust and unfair treatment meted out to the sector.

“Chop the administrative machinery to one fifth of its current size. Take my word, the quality of governance will improve”, a very senior member of the current government economic team commented some time back talking to this scribe.

“This army of ‘babus’ hinder progress at every step. There are some efficient people but the general lot is more of a road block that has to be removed”, he remarked bitterly.

The current report of Transparency International placed Pakistan on 96th position among 134 countries assessed for corruption. On the Corruption Perceptions Index the country scored low 2.5 against the maximum score of ten. The same organisation projected the country to have lost $94 billion (Rs8.5 trillion) in corruption, tax evasion and bad governance.