Category Archives: India

Fast Cars

Posted on by
Reply

Auto racing can be very taxing.

India has fought long and hard to play host to a Formula One race and the first Indian Grand Prix is scheduled to run later this month at a brand new track outside New Delhi. If the Indian tax wallahs allow the race to get to the first turn. India’s Central Board of Excise and Customs is refusing to grant the F1 teams a duty exemption for temporarily importing all the equipment needed to run a modern auto race. The teams started flying their gear on an Asian swing a couple weeks back to race in Singapore last weekend and Japan next weekend, with India after that. The logistics put a premium on being able to move massive amounts of kit very, very quickly over international borders. Most countries go out of their way to make it as easy as possible. Not India, which wants to pocket $1.5 million dollars in customs duties.

Fast tax

To make things worse, the Indian state in which the track is located wants to tax the racing teams’ income. They argue that the India race is one of 19 races this year, so they are entitled to tax 1/19th of the teams’ income. Leaving aside the matter of whether all races attract the same amount of income, being the only country on the schedule to do this likely means that India won’t be on the schedule again. Oh, and they want to tax the drivers’ income, too. I don’t know if they have gotten down to the mechanics or the cooks in the hospitality centers.

When I heard about the customs duties, my first thought was that the F1 teams simply need to get an ATA Carnet from the International Chamber of Commerce to solve the problem. India, after all, is one of the more than 75 countries that recognizes carnets as a way to bring goods in temporarily – duty free, say, for showing at trade fairs. But, it turns out, India never signed on to the carnet provision to allow temporary imports of “professional equipment”. This means that the Indian customs people are within their rights, but does enforcing those rights make it wise?

The Indian race organizer says they will pay the customs duties if necessary. Don’t know how the income tax thing will come out. If it can’t be resolved, F1 has plenty of offers to race in other countries. FYI, India screwed participants in the 2010 Commonwealth Games the same way.

It’s All Fake!

Posted on by
Reply

You have heard me rant about counterfeit products, but now you can see a marvelous rant by The Credit Blog – perhaps an unlikely source. The image shown is but a portion of a ginormous graphic filled with surprising info about counterfeit goods and how they hurt the rest of us in so many ways. Go see the whole thing here.

China is the world’s biggest offender, supplying two-thirds of a $600 billion a year industry that is growing by 30% a year. (And you wonder why my posts on international corruption are almost always linked to China: they simply cheat more than anyone else.) Looking just at U.S. (not worldwide) seizures of counterfeit goods, nearly $205 million was seized last year with Chinese origins. Next up was free-trade (and apparently laissez faire  enforcement) Hong Kong with nearly $27 million. India followed a distant 3rd with a little over $3 million in U.S. seizures.

10% of the world’s drugs are counterfeited, a number that rises to 25% in developing countries. That’s comforting to think about when you are buying drugs online. Fake Viagra made up 57% of all U.S. drug seizures in 2010, which I suppose proves the power of positive thinking (i.e., the placebo effect) among upstanding citizens.

37% of the auto parts sold in India are counterfeits. The Middle East is safer; they only have 20% fakes on their cars and trucks. 36,000 auto fatalities in the United States may have been caused by counterfeit parts.

If the auto parts and the fake drugs don’t get you, China makes enough counterfeit cigarettes to supply every American smoker with 460 packs a year.

There is plenty more, so run, don’t walk.

How Much Was That Again?!

Posted on by
Reply

Travel for health reasons has a long history, going back to pilgrimages in the mists of antiquity. And the medical tourism trade is thriving as never before. It is huge in S.E. Asia with Thailand’s hospitals leading the way, big in Europe, and even tiny Hawaii is in on the business. When I worked in Vienna, it was commonplace for expats and Austrians to drive across the border to get procedures done for cheap in Hungary. My dentist even suggested it as an alternative to her high Austrian prices!

But the price may have gotten just a bit too high in Singapore. The island city has been a focus of medical travel in S.E. Asia and has excellent facilities and personnel that attract customers from throughout the region. I had a sports medicine doctor whose clientele came from many of the surrounding countries. And a cardiologist who boasted cabinet ministers from several other countries among his clients.

Dr. Susan Lim is a leading surgeon in Singapore and has been a pioneer in Asia doing liver transplants. She also seems to be a pioneer in medical billing according to a report from Bloomberg, issuing a bill that was tough for even the royal family of Brunei to swallow. Dr. Lim treated a member of the royal family for cancer in 2007 and in July 2007 sent a bill to Brunei for a cool US$20 million! The patient, unfortunately, died the following month and Brunei asked the Government of Singapore to see if the bill could be whittled down just a bit. Dr. Lim agreed and issued a new bill for a little less than US$10 million. Dr. Lim has even found a forensic accountant who says her charges are reasonable, according to the Straits Times. Only $5,247 an hour. There is a court case proceeding in Singapore about the charges, but the damage has been done and Singapore’s position as a medical tourism destination may have been hurt.

Travel for medicinal purposes, but beware the bill.

Generally speaking, billing for medical tourism goes in the other direction. The whole reason a patient goes to another country for treatment is usually either (1) to find treatments not available at home, or (2) to pay less than at home. According to Deloitte, you can get a heart bypass for $10,000 in India, $20,000 in Thailand or $23,000 in Singapore. Healthcare Beyond Boundaries quotes the same bypass for $7,000 in India. That’s compared to $56,000 in the United States! You could get a pacemaker for only $3,500 and visit the Taj Mahal in the same trip.