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

indiatoday.in

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

#221

Post by vinni2 »

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?

And number of people evading tax is also significant. A lot of small and medium businesses don’t pay or pay very little income tax.

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

#222

Post by acwan93 »

0xfaded wrote: post #110
freebasenic wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You pay the tax during tax season though, _right_ ?

Haha, I looked into doing this for an avionics upgrade for a light aircraft I used to have a share in. Apparently the taxman actually has time to chase down people who fly their aircraft around for tax reasons. To be clear, we wound up doing the upgrade in California where the aircraft was based.

I think state governments go after large purchases, like (pricy) wedding rings, aircraft, cars, or anything like that simply because that's where they'll get the biggest return.

It might be an urban legend now, but I've heard of a soon-to-be-married couple purchasing a wedding ring in Portland, OR, and making several trips from SF to Portland. They took photos of the ring at typical Portland attractions (Mt. Hood, Multnomah Falls, food carts), and did that for several months. Doing that, after adding up all the flight/hotel tickets, was still cheaper than buying the ring straight up in California.

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

#223

Post by aranelsurion »

This one hits me close to home, it was the same way back then in Turkey.

To describe how bad it is: Recently a popular politican tweeted Playstation 5 costs 8299₺ in Turkey, which is more expensive than booking a flight to Bulgaria, having a modest stay and buying Playstation there. This is a country where minimum wage is 2300₺ ($290) and around half the country is being paid that amount. iPhone 12 Pro? Base model rumored to be $1900.

Oh, and cars cost around 4 times more expensive, so a second hand 2007 Ford Fiesta costs around 15 times the minimum wage.

But hey, voters were happy and they've been happily voting for the same guy for 20 years. There must be some 'folk wisdom' there but I certainly missed what it is.

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

#224

Post by Marciplan »

aranelsurion wrote: post #223

This one hits me close to home, it was the same way back then in Turkey. To describe how bad it is: Recently a popular politican tweeted Playstation 5 costs 8299₺ in Turkey, which is more expensive than booking a flight to Bulgaria, having a modest stay and buying Playstation there. This is a country where minimum wage is 2300₺ ($290) and around half the country is being paid that amount. iPhone 12 Pro? Base model ru…

From what I can see online the Turkish and USD prices are quite similar?

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

#226

Post by fomine3 »

908B64B197 wrote: post #209
hannofcart wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt that the taxes from import of electronics is significant enough for it to be a 'great deal' for the Indian Government. I think their intended purpose is to promote/protect local manufacturing.

I get the protectionist aspect, but are they re-investing the money from this tax to make manufacturing desirable in the country? We're talking logistics improvement, stable electric grid, infrastructure and training programs to get an educated workforce. Or is it just contributing to some bureaucrat's pension fund? In the same vein, I 100% agree with fuel taxes and green taxes... if the government can demonstrate 10…

Anyway India market is huge so big corps want to sell products. Apple ordered ODMs to build factory in India. The tax works.

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

#227

Post by frutiger »

smabie wrote: post #61
frutiger wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> simply claim to customs that you had it already for a while? You can also simply hold a knife to a stranger and ask them to empty their wallet. Both happen to be illegal, however.

illegal doesn't mean very much when customs is about shaking you down, stealing your stuff, and making you pay bribes. Every time I've traveled to Africa for example, I've had to give customs officers some stuff and money. It got so bad that I was buying Bluetooth speakers and duty free gin just for them.

What’s the lesson here? That when the rule of law is weak we should all steal what we can?

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

#228

Post by frutiger »

vladvasiliu wrote: post #62
frutiger wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> simply claim to customs that you had it already for a while? You can also simply hold a knife to a stranger and ask them to empty their wallet. Both happen to be illegal, however.

There's often a legal exemption for personal belongings. Of course, if you claim the 50 iphones in your bag are "for personal use" it might not work as well.

That’s right but GGP was suggesting lying presumably to exceed such exemptions.

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

#229

Post by torgian »

ericmay wrote: post #213
MaurizioPz wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I for one (born in Venezuela and moved to Italy) used to be mildly annoyed when italians used the term "americano" to refer people from USA, and used to tell them "I'm also american". In Venezuela I used "estadounidense" [1] and in italian it would be "statunintense" the proper form, but almost nobody uses it. Now I'm used to it and don't mind it anymore and this is the first time I've heard of the term USAian a…

But wouldn't you be sudamericano? America isn't a continent. We have North America and South America. We typically refer to the grouping of those two continents as 'The Americas', but not America. At least not that I've ever seen. On a side note - maybe it depends on if you are taught a different number of continents? ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent ) In the U.S. we do 7. Maybe in Venezuela or Brasil they d…

In East Asia, but especially in Taiwan, Japan and China, people from the USA are usually called American. Normally, when asked, I state I’m from California or the US. I think it’s just a language thing here. It’s easier to say America than it is to say USA or United States.

I’m sure Canadians and others get quite annoyed from that.

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

#230

Post by Ayesh »

ballenf wrote: post #198
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?

I suppose for tax revenue. Sri Lanka recently started mandatory IMEI registration, and all existing phones are not required to do so.

IMEI registration do not require any ID, but a tax money.

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