The compulsions of reality

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Mahmudur Rahman
As part of the cost of doing business in a developing country, business houses often face up to the prospect of "donations" to various organizations and publications. In most cases these 'donations' have very little effect on the bottom line. There have also been instances of smaller businesses having had to make larger such "donations" simply to continue their activity. But the recent years' impact of such 'donations' on big businesses has been an interesting but worrying development.
Essentially most of the big businesses that capitulated can to a certain extent blame themselves. Little discrepancies here and there have multiplied into in ignorable lapses and the bill for such is very high. Two Telcos were slapped with massive fines for illegal VOIP operations and a local company, issued notice of huge evasion. They all paid up but obviously not the sum demanded. There lies the weakness that they put themselves in to for the future.
There are basically two ways of reining in business profits; regulatory measures in the form of licensing, taxation and overt or covert 'pressure' for funding initiatives. The third option that was reportedly used during the caretaker government was seriously detrimental. Given the nature of the situation, then few dared talk about it and most just put their noses to the ground and complied.
During that period a number of big business houses were, thus, reportedly forced to part with large sums of money that was deposited with the treasury. Recently, when the attention of the Finance Minister was drawn to demands for the sums to be returned, he brushed it aside. Effectively the door is closed on the matter. However, the government's view on the overt or covert pressure on the businesses to give in, remains to be addressed.
There was enough evidence of Telco's and business houses rushing to donate IT equipment and significant sum for the huge roadshow that ran throughout the country. In most cases, the "donations" came from companies who were in the wrong somewhere. It was all the more mysterious as there had been no visible requests made for such funding in public. Or perhaps, it could all be camouflaged under the oft forgiven concept of "national interest".
Perhaps that could explain the "large donations" coming in the form of the so-called sponsorship, for funding the SAFF Games beginning in Dhaka. As one senior executive of a financial institution grimaced, "it's just another form of coercion". While few would so admit, the giving in to such proposals is essentially a way of preventing regulation that could otherwise have crippling effects on businesses. Democratic governments at least have the luxury of falling back on punitive back-taxes for "unpaid" previous taxes; a prospect not palatable at all for businesses.
What does seem to be strange is the lack of planning or funds for such events. There's been a year to prepare and it was only recently that even the Annual Development Programme (ADP) was slashed because of unsatisfactory progress about timely implementation of many projects. Such non-completion raised ire of no less a person than the Prime Minister.
One has to sympathize with the National Board of Revenue (NBR) though. Caught between a rock and a hard place in generating increasing revenues from an increasingly non-cooperative society, it can only watch and wonder at the huge transaction between black and white that is happening without their being able to do much about it. (The writer is a former Head of Corporate & Regulatory of British American Tobacco Bangladesh, former CEO of Bangladesh Cricket Board and specializes in corporate affairs, communications and CSR. He can be reached at e-mail: mahmudrahman@gmail.com)