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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

#61

Post by smabie »

frutiger wrote: post #38
cptthrowaway wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't you just buy some electronics, throw away all receipts and such and simply claim to customs that you had it already for a while? For example, when I bought my Audio Technica ATH-M50X in the US for about $100 (while in my country they were about twice as expensive) I just had it around my neck as I was listening music through it. No one asked a thing. In all fairness, I went to the US for fun and got a chance to…

> 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.

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

#62

Post by vladvasiliu »

frutiger wrote: post #38
cptthrowaway wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't you just buy some electronics, throw away all receipts and such and simply claim to customs that you had it already for a while? For example, when I bought my Audio Technica ATH-M50X in the US for about $100 (while in my country they were about twice as expensive) I just had it around my neck as I was listening music through it. No one asked a thing. In all fairness, I went to the US for fun and got a chance to…

> 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.

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

#63

Post by totalZero »

KingOfCoders wrote: post #40
robertlagrant wrote: post #20

> It is no secret that the taxes and duties that are applied to imported phones are highest in India. The taxes are so high that for an important iPhone that you will end up paying an average tax of Rs 24,000 for something like an iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Mini. > However, despite the sky-rocketing prices, iPhone still sells best in India and the buyers give whatever price Apple asks them to pay. So for a business, that…

"However, despite the sky-rocketing prices" Not despite. People don't understand the Apple brand.

Price elasticity of demand isn't linear. Something that is a Giffen good at a lower price may well have negative marginal demand if the price rises too much.

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

#64

Post by strawberrypuree »

brtkdotse wrote: post #21
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #17

I live in New York. Thank God I quit smoking in 1980. A pack of cigarettes in New York costs about $15, in some stores, and no less than $10, outside of the local Native American facilities/reservations. That's almost all taxes.

> That's almost all taxes. I mean, that’s a good thing, right? Smokers should pay for the externalities their habit has on society as a whole.

Cigarette taxes are overwhelmingly paid by the poor, and impact them disproportionately. They do not have a significant impact on the smoking rates (people who would have quit due to the price already have) and there’s no data on how that tax money is spent to offset the externalities.

Some info: https://priceonomics.com/how-cigarettes-tax-the-poor/

TL;DR cigarette taxes feel fair to non smokers because it appears to discourage a habit with bad outcomes, but economically they aren’t effective.

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

#65

Post by kumarvvr »

sharpneli wrote: post #60
kumarvvr wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the govt reduces taxes, doesnt that incentivize apple to just make them elsewhere and ship to India? I thought high taxes are the incentive to start manufacturing or assembly locally.

High tariffs are an incentive. Not taxes. Import tax == tariff basically.

Aren't tariffs and taxes the same thing? In this context, import taxes are tariffs.

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

#66

Post by iso1631 »

MattGaiser wrote: post #34
crossroadsguy wrote: post #18

This piece of taxation engendered tidbit is getting too much attention in India. Now it’s on HN front page. It’s seems unlikely but I wouldn’t put it past Apple. OTOH I don’t mind these high taxes, for a country like India an iPhone is indeed a luxury, if only the tax money didn’t go directly to party funds and offshore accounts one way or the other.

Eh, I think it is just crazy to those of us in North America that import duties can be that high.

"as of May 2019, the US has the highest tariff rate among all developed nations with a trade-weighted tariff rate of 4.2%"

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

#67

Post by smabie »

fierarul wrote: post #31
brtkdotse wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's almost all taxes. I mean, that’s a good thing, right? Smokers should pay for the externalities their habit has on society as a whole.

... and I feel that less than $1 per cigarette so somebody else enjoys 2nd hand smoke doesn't come even near to covering it.

Okay, how much do you think a cigarette should cost?

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

#68

Post by totalZero »

iso1631 wrote: post #42
nikhizzle wrote: post #16

The article excludes the cost of import duty, and other taxes (see daedalus's comment). It is a false argument to say that if I didn't pay tax things could be cheaper eg. if I break the law I can get a cheaper iPhone. Getting caught for breaking the law is a stochastic system, but the expected value is lower than most people think. Edit: How far are people willing to take this? Should we share an article saying someo…

I tried declaring a $3k server equipment once at Mumbai airport. Exceptionally difficult to pay the correct amount ($1k or so - it was 7 years ago so amount might be off) and get a receipt, they wanted me to pay $50.

$1k with the receipt, $50 without? Damn what kind of paper is that receipt printed on....

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

#69

Post by crazygringo »

knuthsat wrote: post #24

How exactly do you avoid customs when flying back? Electronics is cheaper in US but every time I fly back to Europe they check my bags.

At least with Brazil, in practice you're allowed a single personal computer and phone. If you come back to the country with both your old phone and new phone you'll have problems. But if you leave without a phone or laptop, and come back with both, without packaging, with apps and files loaded and everything, and claim you'd brought them in Brazil originally, you're fine. So that's what people do.

If you have a legitimate need to bring multiple devices to and fro, at one point there was a form you'd fill out at the airport when leaving where you'd put down serial numbers and they'd verify on return.

With something like a PS4 it might be a little riskier, but you could probably spin some kind of story they'd accept, as long as it appears similarly used and not in packaging. ("I was visiting family and my nephew wanted to play PS4 so I brought mine for the week!")

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

#70

Post by mcculley »

kumarvvr wrote: post #46
ampdepolymerase wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More like the government is incompetent for failing to use policy to move manufacturing to India and instead raising prices for the average consumer.

If the govt reduces taxes, doesnt that incentivize apple to just make them elsewhere and ship to India? I thought high taxes are the incentive to start manufacturing or assembly locally.

Certainly there is an inflection point where demand meets a taxed price that would cause Apple to build a factory in India. If Apple is not currently building a factory in India, then that point has not been reached and the result is just higher prices for Indians.
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