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I tried starting a manufacturing unit in India (2020)

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Re: I tried starting a manufacturing unit in India (2020)

#341

Post by ectopod »

skippyboxedhero wrote: post #237
otikik wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would go as far as to say that a little bit of corruption is healthy. It adds flexibility. For example: you don't want to register your neighbor's daughter for taxes just so that she can babysit your child once or twice. That is crazytalk. And yes, a lot of countries make sure that small payments don't require registration or taxes. This was just a quick example to make the point, sometimes the general law is just…

> I would go as far as to say... In the UK, it wasn't corruption. These people were paid money for products, they delivered those products, the price paid wasn't excessive. The UK has an independent auditor that found no evidence of corruption, and that (where product was delivered incorrectly) it was due to problems with contract specs. Afaik, there is only one case where a person was directly involved in politics a…

Private Eye has covered this. The level of profit was not normal. Some of the companies were making 50%. And the government had two lists of companies when they were awarding contracts. The priority list was for the acquaintances of ministers and MPs.

It smells very bad.

Re: I tried starting a manufacturing unit in India (2020)

#342

Post by bornfreddy »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #231
grepfru_it wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I visited a Cisco office in India, I noticed there was a prominent notice of business application and listed the Indian owner of the company. I thought that was interesting and went digging into India law about ownership. When I came out of that rabbit hole I immediately had zero interest in starting up in India. Simply because of the bureaucracy and would be way more wink-wink-$$$-nudge-nudge than what I'm even…

Well, I expected this article to be about bribes, because I assume it happens a lot. However, there were no bribes. Does anyone have actual experience with bribes in India (not traffic police)? Edit: sorry, one person openly asked for a bribe, the Panchayat. I would like to understand more about this. Do they just ask for an amount?

I read the article a bit differently... Whenever there is a "no bribes" note, all went well - elsewhere there were obstacles which could probably be solved with bribes.

Re: I tried starting a manufacturing unit in India (2020)

#343

Post by renewiltord »

NovemberWhiskey wrote: post #328
VBprogrammer wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jesus. Please no one take that as legal advice. Paying a bribe to get preferential treatment (even if that treatment is just to get the person to do their actual job) is a bribe none the less.

Paying an official to perform their job (perform a "routine governmental action") is a facilitating payment and is an exemption from the prohibitions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/78dd-1 The point with a facilitating payment is that you've done everything that's actually required by law to e.g. get a business license and the official is still giving you the run-aroun…

Yeah, dude doesn't deserve getting downvoted as hard as he is. Neither the "You'll get killed by FCPA" nor the "FCPA lets you do this" comments are legal advice. But what you're saying is, in fact, true. It allows US companies to continue to be competitive in places where this stuff is expected.

Re: I tried starting a manufacturing unit in India (2020)

#344

Post by yrgulation »

TheRealPomax wrote: post #340

> Yes, you need to obtain “permission” before you build any manufacturing structure on your own land with your own money. I don't understand why this is phrased as incredulous. Are there countries where this isn't the case? Just because you own the land -which you don't, you merely have a title that grants you the exclusive, but limited, usage rights of that land- does not mean you are free to just build whatever you…

> Balkan levels of bribery.

Yeah think again.

Re: I tried starting a manufacturing unit in India (2020)

#345

Post by ummonk »

nabusman wrote: post #332
tkk23 wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

India is huge. Could there be a district with enough integrity that it can become the place to establish a company in India?

I think the state of Bihar is trying to do that (just armchair analysis from reading the news)

Bihar is run by elected thugs and is the last place in India that an honest business would want to go.

Re: I tried starting a manufacturing unit in India (2020)

#347

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

sonthonax wrote: post #36
agileAlligator wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It seems like the problem is that the author has a moral objection to paying bribes Duh?

There’s a distinction to be made between a small customary bribe to an seriously underpaid state employee, and a larcenous bribe to a high official.

Not according to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

The FCPA basically says that as a representative of a US corporation (in my case, anyone at a Staff Engineer level or above), it's illegal to bribe an official of a foreign government.

It does try to make a distinction (sort of) between the kinds of bribe you're talking about but in my FCPA training, that "distinction" boils down to "go ask your lawyer." The lawyer will just tell you how to do it in a way that doesn't look like a bribe, even though it still is.

Re: I tried starting a manufacturing unit in India (2020)

#348

Post by shrewduser »

stefan_ wrote: post #271
cafard wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US citizens bribing foreign officials can be convicted of a felony under (I think it is) The Foreign Corrupt Practices act. Whether DOJ chases down three-developer scale stuff, or has only the staff for multi-zillion class bribes, I don't know.

Paying an official to do something they were going to do (eventually) anyway does not qualify as a bribe.

it does sound a lot like a bribe to me.

Re: I tried starting a manufacturing unit in India (2020)

#349

Post by bombcar »

nabusman wrote: post #331
dr_dshiv wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I expected this article to be about bribes, because I assume it happens a lot. However, there were no bribes. Does anyone have actual experience with bribes in India (not traffic police)? Edit: sorry, one person openly asked for a bribe, the Panchayat. I would like to understand more about this. Do they just ask for an amount?

IME the bribes are often not asked directly but instead the people in the office throw up insurmountable obstacles so that you initiate the conversation of bribes. I don't know why they do this, maybe because it puts them in a better negotiating position?

Soliciting a bribe is probably illegal.

But accepting a gift to do your actual job, how could that be illegal, hmmmm?

Re: I tried starting a manufacturing unit in India (2020)

#350

Post by ROTMetro »

pelorat wrote: post #234
franciscop wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a funny story from Spain: My father's has an orange field, so at some point he wanted to dig a well to get some water. He went to the City Hall, got all the tricky paperwork and applied for permission to build it. Months passed by without hearing anything, and at some point he just forgot about it, assuming he'd be denied silently. There's some people in the city hall don't like him too much BTW. Few years lat…

A friend of mine in Spain bought a masia, but was not allowed to tear down the old building to build a new house (protected heritage or something, even though it was junk). So the way around it was to do it in steps. Replace it whole building part by part. So now he has a new house (but it looks like the old one in shape), but there's nothing left of the original.

This is the main way people under the California Coastal Commission's authority did projects up until I moved as well.
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