Over the past two years, about 38 percent of 5400 global companies were asked to pay bribes to get licenses and orders. The representatives of these companies surveyed by PricewaterhouseCoopers global consultancy firm said that the investors were facing this problem in spite of India becoming a new destination for global investors.

According to the PwC 2007 Global Economic Crime Survey, among the seven major emerging economies of the world, India is ahead of Turkey, Mexico and China.

“The Indian companies and government should be concerned about the perception of global firms regarding corrupt environment in India as it would affect the flow of foreign investment and cost of raising funds by India Inc,” said Ashwani Puri, the firm’s Advisory Leader.

Russia, Indonesia and Brazil were, however, ahead of India in terms of corporate corruption, where about half of the surveyed firms reported they had been asked to pay bribes.

Of those firms which had to contend with bribery in India, 66 percent said they lost the opportunity to their competitors because of this factor.

About one-third of the Indian companies surveyed have been victims of economic frauds like asset misappropriation, bribery, accounting frauds and infringement of intellectual property rights in the past two years.