Don't ever say the cost of living is cheap in India!

Median salary in the USA as of 2019,

$40,000 per year = ₹30L

Median salary in India as of 2020,

₹3.2L per year.

People in India earn merely 1/10th of their counterparts in the USA and yet they have to pay double to buy anything that is not made in India!

Someone explain this to me!

iPhone 12 Pro Max 256 GB

Selling price in the US

$1200 = ₹89k

Selling price in India

1.4L

Asus ZenBook 14 Ryzen 7

US 

$850 = ₹63k

India

1L

Yamaha R1

US

$17k = ₹12.6L

India

24L

Ford Mustang GT Fastback V8

US

$40k = ₹30L

India

1 Cr

Petrol/Gasoline

US

$0.65/L = ₹48/L

India

₹84/L

I know that the above examples are not necessarily what an average Indian needs. But, I chose the above examples to get a clear idea of the effect of tax on the final selling price.

A lot of taxes apply to products that are imported to India as finished products. To an extent, this is required to encourage local manufacturing. But at the end of the day, if you can't get something locally made like a decent phone or a 1000CC bike, you are left with no choice but to go for something made elsewhere. It really saddens me that we are paying more than the actual worth on some items which are sold here. I believe the government can earn more tax by reducing tax so that more people will be able to afford these products rather than trying to extract maximum tax from very few who choose to spend that premium.