Entrepreneurship or corruption? | Sunday Observer
OPINION

Entrepreneurship or corruption?

29 May, 2022

“If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference. They are the father, the mother, and the teacher.”–Abdul Kalam

Nowadays it is hard to avoid seeing long lines of vehicles around filling stations and lines made of gas cylinders near almost all LP Gas distributors around the country.

There are two lines of vehicles near some filling stations creating huge traffic jams which make other motorists burn the fuel, they managed to get after staying in a similar line for several hours, unnecessarily not to mention the unhealthy changes in their blood pressure.

Occasionally people experience difficulties due to road blocks made out of gas cylinders by the protesters demanding cooking gas for their daily survival. Though you might not see too many luxury vehicles in those fuel lines there is no shortage of them on the road.

Either all those vehicles that are moving on the roads though they have not been in fuel lines, are all electric vehicles or they must be getting fuel through a different method. It is also not that difficult to see that the people waiting in lines for LP gas also are there because they do not have any other alternative to get their meals prepared or run their small businesses.

Hired labour

People who can afford to use hired labour will certainly have someone else waiting in the LP gas line on behalf of them and no one would see anything wrong with that.

It would be a bit more complicated to do that in the fuel line since they stopped issuing fuel to external cans. For the fuel line, one has to hire a driver and that would be more expensive than unskilled labour who can handle the LP gas line.

It probably is safe to assume that no one would find fault with a person who gives the vehicle to his/her driver to take it to the fuel line and paid him something extra depending on the number of hours he had to stay in the line. In fact, most of the people would say it is unfair if the driver was not paid anything extra.

If the person I hired last time to be in the LP gas line used his entrepreneurial skills and expanded his services to more clients, by the time I finish the cylinder he’d gotten me last time, he would certainly demand more money since he can now sell his services at a higher price due to higher demand.

Not many people would see anything wrong with that either. When this person gets more requests to be in the gas line than he can handle at a time he brings his wife, son, daughter, or any other family member who is willing and able to help him out.

If the demand is even higher, he would hire a person to be in the line for a lower fee than what he gets and keep a profit for himself. Now he is an employer. There is another group of entrepreneurs who are networking with the suppliers and distributors who have access to new cylinders with gas that can be sold to interested buyers at a higher price than what is recommended by the Government.

People who can afford to pay that price would even buy two three more cylinders even to make sure that they will have a continuous supply. Though getting the service of another person to be in the line does not violate any regulation, selling a gas cylinder at a higher price than regulation is a violation of the law. But if my neighbour has an almsgiving and is badly in need of a cylinder of gas which I happen to have and am willing to give, in appreciation of which he gives me some cash, then that is not illegal.

Trustworthy neighbour

Let us assume that a person who neither has time to wait in the fuel line nor a driver to do it for him comes to an agreement with a trustworthy neighbour, who is also an experienced driver, who offered him the service of taking the car and staying in the fuel line for a reasonable fee.

Not very many people would find any fault with such an agreement either. After all, what are neighbours for, if we don’t help each other out? When the person with the car needs to fill the tank again, he informs the neighbour and this time the neighbour says that he doesn’t need the car since he can use the old car which is sitting in his garage and get the fuel and transfer it later.

He only needs the cost of fuel. That way not only the owner of the car doesn’t waste any time in the line he can even keep using the car without leaving it in the line. Since the fuel is delivered to home, this time he pays the neighbour a bit more than the last time, appreciating his efforts of adding value to the service.

Next time the neighbour has enough money to buy the fuel, so he says don’t worry, I will have fuel in my car, you tell me when you need, and it is just a matter of transferring it to your car. This time the car owner didn’t even have to leave cash with the neighbour.

Therefore, he appreciates the service by the neighbour and gives a bigger present in cash appreciating the neighbours support. Next day the neighbour tells the car owner that he can provide this service to any of his other friends if they are in need and only thing is that he will have to charge a bit more than what he charges him. The car owner talks to his friends and they are happy to pay a bit extra to avoid the pain and suffering of staying in lines for hours and start buying from this person who is willing to help.

How can anyone find faults with this friendly neighbour who is willing to go the extra mile to ease the pain and suffering of the others? Besides, nobody has evaluated the number of man hours that would be wasted if all these people who subscribe to such services stayed in the fuel line individually. Some of them can be medical doctors, engineers, accountants, professors, teachers, lawyers, and taxi drivers (interestingly enough, not a single politician) whose working time is not only valuable to their personal finances but also to the economy of the country.

Therefore, next time you see those long three-wheeler, motorcycle, and even some car lines near filling stations and perhaps even notice that the same vehicle getting fuel three four times a day (not because it had too many hires, of course) you may have to think whether you should encourage such entrepreneurship reducing the pain and suffering and time-waste of other professionals in this country so that they can be productive or you should complain about corruption and exploitation of the situation.

The writer has served in the higher education sector as an academic over twenty years in the USA and fifteen years in Sri Lanka and he can be contacted at [email protected])

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