'Has to pay daily bribes': Startup founder's friend alleges Rs 30K monthly bribe in Bengaluru

Ahmed Shariff, a social media user, on Monday alleged that a friend running a business in Bengaluru is forced to pay monthly and daily bribes to local police. "My friend started a business in Bangalore. Has to pay 20-30K every month to the local police inspector. Plus daily bribes to low-level constables," Shariff posted on X.

Shariff's post came days after Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal announced a grievance helpline desk under the 'Startup India' initiative, meant to address corruption and bureaucratic delays affecting startups. "If any officer troubles you or if you want to make any suggestion regarding any changes in laws or flag a product or technology that may not fall under India's legal ambit, you can reach out to that helpline," Goyal said at the Startup Maha Kumbh event in Delhi.

The minister added, "If you believe you haven't done anything wrong and worked within the ambit of the law, you can complain through the helpline."

In the past few days, multiple entrepreneurs have shared their own accounts of red tape, corruption, and apathy from authorities.

Entrepreneur Murtaza Amin wrote, "I run a 100 people software company from #Burhanpur MP, I bring M$+ / yr to Bpur economy & I am the largest white collar-employer in #Burhanpur...We don't have 24/7 electricity in our town, bureaucratic harassment is rampant, and we are treated like 3rd grade citizens by babus.”

He added that even after writing to the PMO and other officials, the response was dismissive. “1st: I am tired of giving bribes for everything I want to get done. 2nd: frequent and unscheduled power cuts (for God's sake, what do I tell my customer in UK? we don't have electricity here?) 3rd: Enough with bureaucratic harassment… officers ask me to travel to Khandwa (60 km's away to meet f2f to ask for bribes), aren't we building digital India? or is that a jumla for commoners like us, not for babus.”

Mahima Jalan, another entrepreneur, said her dream of building a job-creating agency quickly turned into a bureaucratic nightmare. “My GST application was rejected, not due to any issue in paperwork, but because the officers expected an in-person visit, just so I could ‘settle’ things with them under the table.” She also flagged issues with receiving international payments: “Even if a client pays you, the payment can get flagged, your account might get blocked, and you have to fight just to get your own money.”

A semiconductor startup founder shared a similar story of systemic dysfunction: “My startup is eligible for certain tax breaks, Your department sat on my application for over 2 years and returned it to me last week asking for ‘Additional documents’...Within a few hours of your rejection I got a call from a ‘facilitator’ who promised me quick and guaranteed results if I use their service for ‘preparing my documents’!”

He also criticised the cost burden on deep-tech startups due to import laws. "Due to your tax laws, I end up paying 2X the amount (compared to my competitors outside India) for importing compute resources, EDA Licenses, equipment and raw material! If I need to import a 10$ wireless device for my lab, I need to pay INR 10,000 to WPC to get approval to import it!"