OH! My GST!!!, Exclaims Aam Aadmi

Join Neel as the new tax regime threw up many surprises for him on a usual day

- Apoorva Jayasimha

The shopping bags were getting heavier. Yet Neel had no reason to complain. He was in fact beaming. Shopping was never this fun or rather satisfying. Neel picked up anything and everything he could lay his hands on. Books, clothes, footwear, household necessities, grains, pulses, cereals, beauty and health care products and the list refused to end. All he knew — it was raining “The GST sale”.

He remembered trying to grab the last piece of scented designer after-shave, when he was suddenly jolted out of his slumber and found himself on the floor of his room. “Darn it had to be dream!!” he mumbled before he began getting ready for the day ahead.

He only hoped that at least a fragment of his short-lived dream would come true and that the much hyped and most-awaited GST would help him heave a sigh of relief by bringing down prices of innumerable goods and services of daily consumption. Whether it really did remained to be seen.

Never did his morning walk seem so engrossing. He pondered over his recent decision to invest in a treadmill. However, it was amply clear that he had to rethink his choices over the next few days. He chucked the idea of a treadmill as gym equipment attracted a 28% GST. His thoughts swayed from one futile alternative to another till he finally stumbled upon the idea of riding a bicycle. He weighed the pros and cons and came to a seemingly impressible conclusion. “Bicycle it was!!” he patted himself in delight that bicycles have a tolerable GST rate of 12%. Two, it did help him to catch up with a different form of exercise. “This was surely some tax planning”, he prided himself.

As he then stepped in, the bathroom posed a mirage of questions. Toothpaste, shampoo, shower gel, deodorant, perfume, after-shave had all become dear. Going by the rates announced the night before, he was pretty sure that this could be his last bottle of shower gel for a long time to come.