“There is an affluent class in India that consumes imported luxury goods such as high end motor vehicles, motorcycles, yachts and similar vessels. I am sure they will not mind paying a little more,” he said with a smile. Believe me, the glass almost fell out of my hand, so I gulped the drink in one go.
Reuters
More income tax ( a ten percent surcharge it seems) just because I make more than one crore per year. What rubbish I say. Just because I make more money than the average person why should I pay more tax? I already had a road named after me, what will Chidambaram do with all this tax?
Trying to make me feel better by saying that I will have to pay more income tax only for one year didn’t make me feel any better.
Then came the real hit. I was planing on getting myself that new Maserati but Chidambaram announced that I would have to pay 100 percent customs duty on an imported car as compared to 75 percent.
So now I actually have to pay two times the price of the car. I think I’ll stick with my Aston Martin for now.
I also wanted to buy my girlfriend a new SUV, the old one has to go. That Finance Minister raised the excise duty on that too by three percent. What he has against me I’ll never know.
A new Harley Davidson motorcycle will also have to wait. That is going to be become costlier by 15 percent and I’m going to be damned if I am going to spend that much on him.
That Chidambaram, has also raised taxes on the yachts from 10 to 25 percent. I have told my girlfriend to stop dreaming about sunning herself on that yacht I planned to get, and instead start using the verandah a little more.
And then came the ultimate blow. The Finance Minister raised taxed on my beloved Cuban cigars by 18 percent! I don’t know how much that works out to, I’ll have to ask the guy I get them from, but it sounds like a lot.
He even raised excise duty on mobile phones to 6 percent. Only mobile phones less than Rs 2,000 were spared. Who uses those cheapass phones anyway? Some farmers I am sure, but they don’t have mobile network anyway.
Well one thing’s for sure, I’m not going for that lunch where this Finance Minister’s supposed to turn up. And if I do go, it will be with two eggs in my pocket to throw at Chidambaram. We 42,000 people who earn more than one crore a year don’t really love you right now. And that Azim Premji, I’ll have to deal with him too.
Comments