Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

iPhone 12 Pro so costly in India, you can fly to Dubai to buy it and save money

indiatoday.in

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 259 posts

Re: iPhone 12 Pro so costly in India, you can fly to Dubai to buy it and save money

#181

Post by srg0 »

kspacewalk2 wrote: post #118
nkrisc wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a term people use to either be funny, or it's because they're somehow offended that people from USA use the demonym "American" even though there are other countries in the Americas, yet despite the fact that no one else in those countries seems to care because they have their own demonyms they use. The former are just having a laugh, and the latter are looking for things to be offended by. I don't know which cam…

I prefer Youessians.

I suppose that any suffix is not culturally neutral.

Youessish. Like in British, English, Irish, Welsh, Scottish.

Youessan. Like in Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban.

Youessese. Asian American.

Youessian. Like Italian, Hungarian, Russian, Indian.

Re: iPhone 12 Pro so costly in India, you can fly to Dubai to buy it and save money

#182

Post by wtmt »

acwan93 wrote: post #92

On a much smaller scale, this is achieved in the US by going to a no sales tax state like Oregon or Delaware. With the sales tax in Los Angeles at 10.25%, I’ve ended up queuing up large purchases together, buying a round trip ticket to Portland ($200-300) and hitting up the Apple Store, Target, Best Buy there. And get a free trip to Portland! I’ve read the Christiana Mall in Delaware is especially popular for people…

Don't you have a "use tax" that you're legally obligated to pay sales tax locally as per the rates in force in Los Angeles even if you buy something from another location? I recognize that legal requirements and common practice are different.

Re: iPhone 12 Pro so costly in India, you can fly to Dubai to buy it and save money

#183

Post by juusto »

classified wrote: post #179

A laptop that can make phone calls starts to be cheaper than an actual phone. I wonder whether anyone is recording that particular moment in history.

I am on the process of selecting a tablet as my personal "phone" leaving my corporate at home when doing private things.

I am also open for a laptop, which one do you recommend? Has to be small enough to go everywhere with. (no more than 1.5k €/$)

Re: iPhone 12 Pro so costly in India, you can fly to Dubai to buy it and save money

#184

Post by lotsofpulp »

muststopmyths wrote: post #162
hangonhn wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a reason for that other than just tradition/history? Sometimes when things differ from our norms, there may be a reason or an advantage that we are unaware of. Just curious. Thanks in advance!

>Is there a reason for that other than just tradition/history? Probably not. Just like the Japanese number system (as distinct from counters for objects) where 1000/10000 are special units. Even in English, the counting was not consistent. Isn't billion supposed to be 1 million million in the UK ? Lots of the urban population in India is adopting US millions and billions in everyday language too, so I'm sure the glob…

I don’t know anyone in England that means million million when they say billion, especially people working in finance or tech. I wonder if there even are any places that still use billion = million million.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion

> American English adopted the short scale definition from the French.[3] The United Kingdom used the long scale billion until 1974, when the government officially switched to the short scale, but since the 1950s the short scale had already been increasingly used in technical writing and journalism; the long scale definition still enjoys some limited usage in the UK.[4]

Re: iPhone 12 Pro so costly in India, you can fly to Dubai to buy it and save money

#185

Post by sangnoir »

ericol wrote: post #124

Dude. Hold my beer. In Argentina, pre pandemic there were people that actually went shopping to Miami, because getting anything Apple - be it an iPhone or a laptop - was cheaper that way. The iPhone 12 is not for sale here, but let's use the iPhone 11 as an example. In the only "official" store I could find it [0], the price is 184.299 pesos (yes, 184 thousand). If you check the "official" US dolar rate [1] it is aro…

This is not a tax issue, but induced by existence of dual exchange rates. I'm guessing due to the limits, most phone resellers have to obtain their US dollars from the black market at higher rates, resulting in higher local pricing. Only those who are well-connected or buy dollars in low volumes can get adequate sums at the official rate, and even then, the arbitrage opportunity may be too good to miss out on, which results in prices close to black market rates, regardless.

Re: iPhone 12 Pro so costly in India, you can fly to Dubai to buy it and save money

#186

Post by teatree »

I understand taxing an optional luxury item like iPhone to encourage local manufacturing, with all the cheap phones available it won't affect the common man too much. But the government here is bent on taxing everything as much as possible. Eg: The Prime Minister keeps harping about "Digital India" but computer components and laptops have an import duty of 80-100%. Does he have the money to build a fab in India ? Hell no, but tax processors at 80%. Talks about "Artiphisial Intelligence" in his speech and annual budget, but taxes GPUs at 80-100%.

The rich and middle class have workarounds for these duties by asking friends and family to bring them things from US, but its the poor who's children suffer the most. Poverty is not a problem in India, its a design feature, keep people poor and stupid, loot them all you want.

Most people who have the resources or skill to leave India are doing it anyway. Policies like these will only serve to expedite it. This country will likely be next Venezuela.

PS: This is not a political statement against the present government, every political party here has done and will continue with this stupidity.

Re: iPhone 12 Pro so costly in India, you can fly to Dubai to buy it and save money

#187

Post by wtmt »

dry_soup wrote: post #6

Since the article lists prices in INR: The price of the iPhone 12 Pro in India in USD today is $1,615.22, and the price in Dubai is $1,140.15. So it must be possible to fly round-trip to Dubai for less than about $475, which seems plausible.

The calculation is not as simple as that. Any imports above INR 50K (about USD 676), while traveling back to India by Indian citizens, attract import duties (of 35% or so, IIRC). So the $1140.15 device, when it lands in India, would attract a duty on the excess amount. Of course, people may not declare it at customs or may try to claim it's a used device (while not having any other phone), but this is the official law.

Re: iPhone 12 Pro so costly in India, you can fly to Dubai to buy it and save money

#188

Post by kawfey »

ericmay wrote: post #108
reaperducer wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the USAians, Rs24000 is $325.78. By comparison, I paid $92.04 in sales tax for my new iPhone, and I am currently in a geography that is considered low-tax.

What is USAian?

A United States of American.

Re: iPhone 12 Pro so costly in India, you can fly to Dubai to buy it and save money

#189

Post by rockyj »

nikhizzle wrote: post #173
rockyj wrote: post #131

A lot of people in here are saying - oh I had to do this is Germany or Denmark or USA as well. Which is fair, but what irks me is that in India which has pretty high taxation in all departments (see Petrol/Gasoline) the tax you pay gives you ZERO benefit. No healthcare, education or unemployment benefits etc. Also on top of this, due to the corrupt system, if you need anything from any govt. agency you will need to p…

I think perhaps you are conflating no services for the upper 20% of society with no services. But the gulf is very wide in India and the population is massive. 354 million people in poverty! India's food assistance programs, free education, and healthcare are amongst the most used on the planet. Examples from Wikipedia: - The Indian public health sector encompasses 18% of total outpatient care and 44% of total inpati…

Without any sarcasm, thank you, I did not know all this :) I also hope and pray that these programs are working well as intended.

Re: iPhone 12 Pro so costly in India, you can fly to Dubai to buy it and save money

#190

Post by wtmt »

The author has made this too simplistic and avoided the point about customs duty on imported goods brought in person. The duty free limit for returning Indian citizens for travels longer than three days is INR 50K (about USD 676). Anything excess of that amount will be taxed (edit: import duty applied) on entry at around 35% (IIRC). People may avoid declaring items or may bribe customs officials to get away with this, but the numbers put forth by the author are incorrect.

See https://www.cbic.gov.in/resources/htdocs-cbec/guide_for_trav...

Post reply on HN