Letters: End practice of bribery

The report, "Walmart paid millions in bribes in India: WSJ" (October 20), is mainly concerned with the US retailer Walmart's kickbacks to low-level local officials in India when it was trying to get its retail business project started in the country. Wall Street Journal's contention is that the small amounts paid as bribes add up to a huge sum, and therefore the matter should be investigated.

Those doing business in India will find nothing new in the report. India Inc is quite familiar with such small pay-offs. These are included under the 'miscellaneous' head in cost estimates when a project needs several clearances. These pay-offs need not be treated as an important variable of doing business in India. In fact, this is true of other countries too, including the US. It is important to attack the practice of pay-offs for doing business in India rather than the amounts paid as bribe.

K V Rao, Bengaluru

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