One of our donors recently donated a Kenwood music system to my NGO Adarshmay and while the tape and CD player were not working, but the amplifier was working fine. So we wanted to hook up the audio output of my laptop to the input of the audio system.
To do this I went to buy the required cable from Saraswati Electronics, which is reputed to have all kinds of cables, sockets, adaptors etc.
Saraswati electronics is situated near Chembur Rly Station. The printed MRP on the cable packet was Rs 120/- The guy at Saraswati Electronics told me the price was Rs 60/- I paid him as it is normal for product to be available at below MRP after all it is the Maximum Retail Price.
Things got interesting when I asked him for a receipt! He scribbled 1 audio cable on a pad and tore it off and gave me the "receipt". I saw that the words "Estimate/Quotation" were written on the top of the 'receipt' so I asked him for a "cash-memo"
At first he tried to pass off the estimate as a receipt, when that failed. He told me that if I wanted a 'pukka bill' I would have to pay 12.5% tax and not on the amount that he charged me, but on the printed MRP! i.e. Rs 15 in taxes! I tried to explain to him that I am willing to pay the tax on Rs 60, but to no avail!!
So finally I left with the kutcha bill angry and sad....
The Rs 60/- I paid will now be unaccounted and untaxed i.e. black money!
In a small way I have been forced to contribute to the growing menace of tax evasion! If this is the way a reputed store behaves, one wonders what the smaller guys must be doing....
:(
Have you had any experiences with kutcha/pukka billing?? Please do comment...
To do this I went to buy the required cable from Saraswati Electronics, which is reputed to have all kinds of cables, sockets, adaptors etc.
Saraswati electronics is situated near Chembur Rly Station. The printed MRP on the cable packet was Rs 120/- The guy at Saraswati Electronics told me the price was Rs 60/- I paid him as it is normal for product to be available at below MRP after all it is the Maximum Retail Price.
Things got interesting when I asked him for a receipt! He scribbled 1 audio cable on a pad and tore it off and gave me the "receipt". I saw that the words "Estimate/Quotation" were written on the top of the 'receipt' so I asked him for a "cash-memo"
At first he tried to pass off the estimate as a receipt, when that failed. He told me that if I wanted a 'pukka bill' I would have to pay 12.5% tax and not on the amount that he charged me, but on the printed MRP! i.e. Rs 15 in taxes! I tried to explain to him that I am willing to pay the tax on Rs 60, but to no avail!!
So finally I left with the kutcha bill angry and sad....
The Rs 60/- I paid will now be unaccounted and untaxed i.e. black money!
In a small way I have been forced to contribute to the growing menace of tax evasion! If this is the way a reputed store behaves, one wonders what the smaller guys must be doing....
:(
Have you had any experiences with kutcha/pukka billing?? Please do comment...
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