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

191–200 of 259 posts

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

#191

Post by throwawy42434 »

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…

Well, taxation is little more than rent-seeking by the third-rate inheritors of the British kleptocracy to let you be - from the petty-bribery to all the way up the food chain.

Why are you (or anyone) surprised by this ? The only option, very sadly, is one of emigrating out. There is little hope for change in this century.

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

#192

Post by [deleted] »

rockyj wrote: post #151
robotresearcher wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Under various articles of the Indian Constitution, free and compulsory education is provided as a fundamental right to children aged 6 to 14. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_India Is this not working out in practice, in your view?

As someone has mentioned in the comments in this thread, it is easy to pass laws & schemes sitting in a comfortable office. The implementation which takes resources, efficient distribution, competence and leg work is another story. Anyways, I do not want to be too critical of anyone. My knowledge is limited to a few families I know and the few cities I have lived in. India is huge and hard to describe in a few senten…

[deleted]

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

#193

Post by franciscop »

wtmt wrote: post #190

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…

Consumer taxes are supposed to be applied only once, so if you are going to go the legal route and pay them on arrival, in many (all?) countries you can also claim the tax money back when leaving the original country with the ticket at the airport.

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

#194

Post by wtmt »

franciscop wrote: post #193
wtmt wrote: post #190

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…

Consumer taxes are supposed to be applied only once, so if you are going to go the legal route and pay them on arrival, in many (all?) countries you can also claim the tax money back when leaving the original country with the ticket at the airport.

I'm not talking about the taxes paid in Dubai, in this instance. Whether one can claim it in Dubai or not depends on Dubai's laws. I've seen countries with VAT or GST have this provision for tourists. On the other hand, countries like the U.S. don't have such provisions.

I'm talking about import duties payable in India for goods above a certain value, even if they're brought in person by someone who has traveled abroad.

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

#195

Post by teachrdan »

teatree wrote: post #186

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 ? Hel…

> its the poor who's children suffer the most

Honest question: How do the poor (and their children) "suffer the most" from taxes on GPUs and iPhones?

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

#196

Post by throwawy42434 »

robotresearcher wrote: post #145
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…

> Under various articles of the Indian Constitution, free and compulsory education is provided as a fundamental right to children aged 6 to 14. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_India Is this not working out in practice, in your view?

Public schools have been abandoned by everyone but the very poorest - the facilities are terrible even by 3rd world standards, and worse, the public schools push the eduction in the native languages, which is (very sadly) next to worthless economically in India.

The above disempowerment of India's natives, their culture and languages, is the direct result of the Indian state continuing colonial policies of very unfairly advantaging the Anglicized elites, educationally, socially, politically and thus economically.

Now that the state has completely failed in its duties, yet again, it has passed a new RTE act, in which it further burdens private schools, targeting esp. those run by Hindus. The Indian state in all its 'secular' glory, decided also to favor the Christian missionary schools, the very ones that were instrumental in destroying the country (and China), by sparing them of the same burdens.

https://swarajyamag.com/magazine/the-evidence-is-compelling-...

https://swarajyamag.com/politics/rte-benefits-minority-schoo...

The Indian political estd. and the state is disgusting. Quite frankly, the British for all their faults, atleast knew how to keep a public-schooling and university system running. The 'Brown Babus' are little more than self-conceited idiots wearing fancy suits.

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

#197

Post by [deleted] »

wtmt wrote: post #190

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…

[deleted]

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

#198

Post by ballenf »

ryzvonusef wrote: post #164

In Pakistan, to prevent this, you either can only buy a cellphone whose IMEI was registered with our regulatory authority (when it was imported via official means), or you can register a personally imported phone with absurdly excessive taxes, which makes the whole point moot. https://dirbs.pta.gov.pk/ (btw you can only buy a SIM that's linked to our national identity card, so the sim will just not work. There is a s…

Is this understood to be more for tax revenue or surveillance reasons?

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

#199

Post by throwawy42434 »

Joeri wrote: post #154
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…

Are taxes really that high compared to other countries? India has a tax to gdp ratio of 10%, compared to 25% in the US and 40% in the EU. Maybe you are underestimating just how much taxes are required to fund an effective welfare state?

I don't see where the welfare state is.

- Public schooling, unusable.

- Public health, unusable.

- Public infrastructure, unusable.

I have no clue where my taxes are going, but it sure as hell isn't being spent for "welfare".

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

#200

Post by throwawy42434 »

robotresearcher wrote: post #145
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…

> Under various articles of the Indian Constitution, free and compulsory education is provided as a fundamental right to children aged 6 to 14. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_India Is this not working out in practice, in your view?

You realize literacy in India is still In comparison, China which started out it a much worse economic position (WWII, CCP..), and with a far more difficult writing system, has ended up today a >95% literacy rate.

I realize people like to downvote these pessimistic comments, just because 'India is the next superpower', the 'great hope of democracies' that will take PRC', but how this can happen without any groundwork is something I can't comprehend.

It takes a whole 20-25 years for a generation to grow up. The tiny sliver that is being reared are very good at servicing people by emigrating to other countries and this is how India (like Phillipines) earns much of its forex. How they can turn into a 'superpower' by turning themselves into a country of glorified serfs is beyond my understanding.

Worse yet, Indians themselves are sucked up to this drunken madness instead of focusing on real problems that have remained unsolved over the past ~80 years either due to political incompetence, or worse conscious decision-making.

Post reply on HN