The Customs Department is at it again. The Porsche Panamera is to cost 2 crores because of customs duties. Without the tariff, it would cost just a crore. Because of the tax, less Indians will be able to afford a Panamera and India will be poorer. Because of the tax, Porsche will sell fewer cars, and Germany will be poorer. Germans will then import less from India… and the circle will continue endlessly until the world has been beggared, or until war breaks out.
What applies to the Panamera applies equally to wine. For some strange reason, our Chacha State has imposed stiff import duties on wine. Because of this, as one gourmet restaurant owner told me, $5 wines sell here for $30.
Again, the same circle of poverty ensues: Indians consume less wine and are poorer; and the wine producers of the world become poorer too. They import less from India… and so on.
In the case of the Panamera, we are “protecting” no one, for no Indian can compete in this segment, not for another 100 years at least. Ditto for wine, where there are just one or two Indian brands on offer. Indeed, there are more wine importers in India than wine producers. So who is being protected by the Chacha State?
Remember, when Kamal D Nutt sabotaged the WTO, much of the fuss was about our import duties on wine. Kamal D Nutt remained firm on this issue to the last. And I read somewhere that his Congress party gets lots of cash from the “liquor lobby” – that is, the purveyors of ugh IMFL harsh grogs. These are the guys being “protected.”
The Old Monkey lobby is killing our wine.
So, India remains a country where the people drink the worst booze in the world, because of “protection.” Pretty ugly, huh?
I was prompted to write this post on wine after reading a report this morning in Mint that said the Indian wine market is down from 200,000 cases annually to 175,000 cases, because of high taxes imposed by state governments. At the end of the report, one analyst says that the potential of the market is 200 million cases. In other words, we are operating at less than one-tenth of 1 percent of potential. What would I suggest?
First, zero taxes on wine and beer – to wean our people away from strong booze.
Second: duty-free importation of wine – so that our people can quickly develop a taste for wine, something they do not possess right now.
Third: encourage the setting up of vineyards and wineries in every part of India where the soil and climate are suitable – Nashik, the western ghats, Hyderabad, Uttaranchal, Jharkhand, the north-east etc. These local wineries will succeed only when the market for wine has been primed by imports. It is futile to “protect” the market now.
Onwards to our consuming 200 million cases of good wine annually.
Cheers, folks. Hic.
Quite a few politicians in Maharashtra - including Sharad Pawar - now own vineyards and are marketing Indian wines. I think this is true also in Karnataka. They are bound to lower the taxes of Indian wines - all the better to sell their wine my dear (to paraphrase the wicked wolf).
ReplyDeleteHow many politicians are involved in the IMFL business? Surely many more. The solution lies in ordinary people seeing the customs department for what it is, an ugly obstruction, while simultaneously standing up for their rights as consumers. We cannot allow politicians to dictate consumption. The consumer must be The King.
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