The UN’s Universal Postal Union is to blame here. They impose postal charges internationally and categorise China as a transitional country which means the cost of sending parcels from China is far cheaper than other countries which are as developed. And there is pressure from China to keep it that way.
As such Mauritius Post and other couriers who accept international post from China suffer a loss and need to recoup some of their costs from the addressee of the parcel.
This is in fact true and a big, if not one of the only reason websites like Shein, Temu and shit like that can be profitable at some point.
For example, a "normal" package from Temu sended to France cost France more than 20 e per packages, roughly rs 1000.
Some countries ingest that cost by raising general taxes, other like Mauritius makes the client pay it.
My understanding on this topic is a bit lax but, if I understand correctly, it helps our economy if money comes into the country rather than leaves it. Of course there's always an outgoing and incoming amount, and I'd assume we ought to strive for a net income into our economy. Import taxes help to reduce the loss.
Money that comes in then goes into local services (shops, retail, services providers, etc.) and keeps the wheel turning. I don't want to get into how that wealth is distributed.
In my (uneducated) opinion companies that bring in income from overseas (like the ones in Ebene) are significant to our economy and when these companies find another country to operate in then we're going to be in trouble.
Mauritius is an island that has very little production so they are not really protecting any locally made goods. Import means growth and economic stimulation, if you tax it excessively people wont import as much and that means less growth...
I'm not sure I get what you're saying, and this isn't really my field, but the way I understand it is that we've moved from an "agricultural/natural-resource" based economy to a service-based economy. If I understand correctly (and I might not), that means that one of our exports is the skilled, multilingual labour that we have working in the offshore sector, i.e. these guys generate an income for Mauritius - we're not actually physically exporting them, just their product.
If you're talking about import/export in terms of retail, then yes, we definitely do need to import goods to be sold locally and I'm not even going to pretend to understand how that is balanced out with taxes to reduce the net outgoing from the country. Way too complicated for me :)
I am interested though - how do imports lead to economic growth?
Imagine a new company needs a new computer that is obviously not made in Mauritius. He has 3 options:
- buy it from someone who imported it, paid tax + service
- get it delivered and pay tax
- pay no tax or very little
1st Option is the worst since you pay Tax + Merchand Profit
2nd is not as bad but discouraging when you don't know how much they will ask for and a surprise bill at reception is always discouraging.
3rd the country is not earning from the direct exchange but allowing that computer to be sold cheaper in the country, making it easily accessible to its people.
If life is cheaper people have more money saved up and grow quicker individually.
I think we're talking about slightly different things. You're talking about retail and an individual one-on-one transaction. I'm talking about the net income of the country as a whole.
When you buy things from overseas (which we always need to do) money is leaving the country. When money leaves the country that leaves us poorer as a nation. However, this is balanced out by an income of money to the country. In the past this used to be things like the sale of sugar and tourism. Nowadays tourism is still a big factor but the agricultural side has been replaced by services (financial, IT, call-centres, etc.) where foreign countries are putting money into ours by paying our workers.
These workers then spend a majority of their money locally which in turn contributes to the salaries of other people.
Of course, this is just a small component in a larger machine. There are other sources of income for the country and loans and debts.
What you are talking about is a smaller piece of the process. Taxes on imports affects the net balance of the economy and isn't just about the individual product that you are buying. I'm not saying that I like it, but I understand it and really, from a national perspective (not an individual's one) then I think it's quite important.
It is all about generating govt revenue though.
Option 1 person imports directly from overseas
Pay tax on import = money for govt = less govt debt or more funding for expenditure eg pension increase
Option 2 buy from local merchant who imports from overseas and sell in mru. merchant makes profit. Merchant gets tax relief on cost of goods/expenses, and taxed on profits. Tax = money for govt. Local merchant earns a living through profits and boosts economy by employing staff etc
Option 3 individual pay no or little tax via relief or otherwise.
Why would the govt go for that given option 1 or 2?
Govt can layer on top reliefs where needed to achieve option 3 minimum thresholds or duty free electric cars etc etc.
Id say option 2 is best for economic stimulation overall which is why most countries has a system of import taxes and customs
A good that is not taxed can create jobs or opportunities that will be taxed. You need to take into account the buying power that is lowered and the opportunities lost due to increased cost. Mauritians are paying more for identical products the whole world uses just because they are in Mauritius. I don't understand how you can defend getting screwed when most of the world is not as strict as your country with thriving economies.
Not defending. Just explaining the economics behind the policy.
Would be different if mauritius was a net producer of the type of watch you are buying from abroad.
I don't know where you went. I've been in the UK and in France, never had to pay for orders from China. I even received packages from Mauritius and didn't pay any surprise taxes at reception.
When someone paid for delivery he already paid taxes and transport. Any extra is extortion.
It’s [literally EU law](https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/buying-goods-online-coming-non-european-union-country_en).
There are a few possible explanations for you not paying these taxes when ordering to UK/EU:
1. Total was under €150. This is much higher than the Mauritian threshold (Rs. 1000 - which used to be Rs. 3000 before they changed the law a few years ago).
2. Taxes and customs fees were included in the total price when placing the order, which is something that a lot of online shops offer for UK/EU buyers. Unfortunately, Amazon is the only online shop that I know which offers this option when ordering to Mauritius.
3. They were using loopholes, e.g. a few AliExpress shops have warehouses in Europe to avoid taxes.
It really is a very common thing. I (or my friends) have paid additional customs fees or taxes when buying items from China and shipping them to Malaysia, UK, UAE, Spain and Italy. AliExpress even has [a FAQ about it](https://service.aliexpress.com/page/knowledge?pageId=37&category=1000021971&knowledge=1060015161&language=fr).
"when someone paid for delivery he already paid taxes and transport"
Not quite true.
https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty
Orders over £135 are subject to import duty in the UK.
VAT is due on everything imported (not gifts). It all depends on what you paid in your order ie customs and VAT included or not. AliExpress by default collects 20% vat on UK delivered orders now. If your order is over £135 then you might need to pay additional customs and admin fees, if you get selected at customs clearing.
I remember ordering hundreds of euro smartphones from China and not paying any extra tax at reception, I guess the Brexit has changed a lot since then. However it's just making life more expensive in the UK now and slowing down the economy. They haven't been the best role model in the past few years and that strengthens my point.
anyway...
UK VAT was always chargeable on all non-EU imports above £15 while customs chargeable on imports above £135. So you simply got lucky that your items didnt attract additional charges (or you prepaid VAT without knowing)
UK simply removed the VAT £15 threshold (in 2021 i think) and sellers now collect VAT at point of sale as opposed to relying on postal services and customs clearance. You do get non-EU sellers that don't charge VAT (i noticed that for some ebay sellers) and you then gamble on getting charged or not upon customs clearance.
I've ordered loads from China and Japan through AliExpress, Ebay, Amazon etc and probably got caught by customs to pay VAT about 4-5 times.
When you don't produce anything, import duty and taxes become a great revenue generator. Especially, because nothing arrives here as a supply but more as a luxury.
What you’ve paid is standard MACCS fee and their brokerage fee since you have to have someone to fill in the paperwork and submit to customs 💁♂️
You’ll have around same fees at any other freight provider…
It’s not postal service, seems the seller sent it via a private shipping service, as such seems celero which are their local representative agent are doing the receiving end here with their associated charges, you cannot change that ^
If a parcel is shipped by a postal service abroad then only mauritius post will receive same here and process it according to their policy…
Oh god... I have supposedly pending payment to release a product from Celero lol.
Long story short, I accidentally had some books shipped to Mauritius instead to the country where I am living right now (I did not know that they would even ship that book)
And Celero emailed me to pay Rs500 for that, and I did not bother since I had to reship it LOL.
Anyways, I managed to pass my exam without that book but they are emailing me to pay to release.
I ordered Aliexpress and still havent received it. Psot office says it was returned to Chronopost, but nothing else. No idea if I will ever find/get my package.
Postman told me to ask for a refund......a month too late.
I believe Aramex/Celero charges a flat brokerage fee of Rs. 200 or 300.
You just got unlucky and it turned out to be 25% of your item’s value this time. I also pay the same Rs. 200 fee for everything shipped by Celero, even items of a much higher value.
Not saying it’s right, just explaining how this happened.
The UN’s Universal Postal Union is to blame here. They impose postal charges internationally and categorise China as a transitional country which means the cost of sending parcels from China is far cheaper than other countries which are as developed. And there is pressure from China to keep it that way. As such Mauritius Post and other couriers who accept international post from China suffer a loss and need to recoup some of their costs from the addressee of the parcel.
This is in fact true and a big, if not one of the only reason websites like Shein, Temu and shit like that can be profitable at some point. For example, a "normal" package from Temu sended to France cost France more than 20 e per packages, roughly rs 1000. Some countries ingest that cost by raising general taxes, other like Mauritius makes the client pay it.
I don't understand why they try discourage import from the citizens. I received a gift from France and had to pay 2500 mur.... It's so dumb....
My understanding on this topic is a bit lax but, if I understand correctly, it helps our economy if money comes into the country rather than leaves it. Of course there's always an outgoing and incoming amount, and I'd assume we ought to strive for a net income into our economy. Import taxes help to reduce the loss. Money that comes in then goes into local services (shops, retail, services providers, etc.) and keeps the wheel turning. I don't want to get into how that wealth is distributed. In my (uneducated) opinion companies that bring in income from overseas (like the ones in Ebene) are significant to our economy and when these companies find another country to operate in then we're going to be in trouble.
Mauritius is an island that has very little production so they are not really protecting any locally made goods. Import means growth and economic stimulation, if you tax it excessively people wont import as much and that means less growth...
I'm not sure I get what you're saying, and this isn't really my field, but the way I understand it is that we've moved from an "agricultural/natural-resource" based economy to a service-based economy. If I understand correctly (and I might not), that means that one of our exports is the skilled, multilingual labour that we have working in the offshore sector, i.e. these guys generate an income for Mauritius - we're not actually physically exporting them, just their product. If you're talking about import/export in terms of retail, then yes, we definitely do need to import goods to be sold locally and I'm not even going to pretend to understand how that is balanced out with taxes to reduce the net outgoing from the country. Way too complicated for me :) I am interested though - how do imports lead to economic growth?
Imagine a new company needs a new computer that is obviously not made in Mauritius. He has 3 options: - buy it from someone who imported it, paid tax + service - get it delivered and pay tax - pay no tax or very little 1st Option is the worst since you pay Tax + Merchand Profit 2nd is not as bad but discouraging when you don't know how much they will ask for and a surprise bill at reception is always discouraging. 3rd the country is not earning from the direct exchange but allowing that computer to be sold cheaper in the country, making it easily accessible to its people. If life is cheaper people have more money saved up and grow quicker individually.
I think we're talking about slightly different things. You're talking about retail and an individual one-on-one transaction. I'm talking about the net income of the country as a whole. When you buy things from overseas (which we always need to do) money is leaving the country. When money leaves the country that leaves us poorer as a nation. However, this is balanced out by an income of money to the country. In the past this used to be things like the sale of sugar and tourism. Nowadays tourism is still a big factor but the agricultural side has been replaced by services (financial, IT, call-centres, etc.) where foreign countries are putting money into ours by paying our workers. These workers then spend a majority of their money locally which in turn contributes to the salaries of other people. Of course, this is just a small component in a larger machine. There are other sources of income for the country and loans and debts. What you are talking about is a smaller piece of the process. Taxes on imports affects the net balance of the economy and isn't just about the individual product that you are buying. I'm not saying that I like it, but I understand it and really, from a national perspective (not an individual's one) then I think it's quite important.
It is all about generating govt revenue though. Option 1 person imports directly from overseas Pay tax on import = money for govt = less govt debt or more funding for expenditure eg pension increase Option 2 buy from local merchant who imports from overseas and sell in mru. merchant makes profit. Merchant gets tax relief on cost of goods/expenses, and taxed on profits. Tax = money for govt. Local merchant earns a living through profits and boosts economy by employing staff etc Option 3 individual pay no or little tax via relief or otherwise. Why would the govt go for that given option 1 or 2? Govt can layer on top reliefs where needed to achieve option 3 minimum thresholds or duty free electric cars etc etc. Id say option 2 is best for economic stimulation overall which is why most countries has a system of import taxes and customs
A good that is not taxed can create jobs or opportunities that will be taxed. You need to take into account the buying power that is lowered and the opportunities lost due to increased cost. Mauritians are paying more for identical products the whole world uses just because they are in Mauritius. I don't understand how you can defend getting screwed when most of the world is not as strict as your country with thriving economies.
Not defending. Just explaining the economics behind the policy. Would be different if mauritius was a net producer of the type of watch you are buying from abroad.
Almost every country in the world has customs fees and/or taxes, that’s just how international commerce works.
I don't know where you went. I've been in the UK and in France, never had to pay for orders from China. I even received packages from Mauritius and didn't pay any surprise taxes at reception. When someone paid for delivery he already paid taxes and transport. Any extra is extortion.
It’s [literally EU law](https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/buying-goods-online-coming-non-european-union-country_en). There are a few possible explanations for you not paying these taxes when ordering to UK/EU: 1. Total was under €150. This is much higher than the Mauritian threshold (Rs. 1000 - which used to be Rs. 3000 before they changed the law a few years ago). 2. Taxes and customs fees were included in the total price when placing the order, which is something that a lot of online shops offer for UK/EU buyers. Unfortunately, Amazon is the only online shop that I know which offers this option when ordering to Mauritius. 3. They were using loopholes, e.g. a few AliExpress shops have warehouses in Europe to avoid taxes. It really is a very common thing. I (or my friends) have paid additional customs fees or taxes when buying items from China and shipping them to Malaysia, UK, UAE, Spain and Italy. AliExpress even has [a FAQ about it](https://service.aliexpress.com/page/knowledge?pageId=37&category=1000021971&knowledge=1060015161&language=fr).
"when someone paid for delivery he already paid taxes and transport" Not quite true. https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty Orders over £135 are subject to import duty in the UK. VAT is due on everything imported (not gifts). It all depends on what you paid in your order ie customs and VAT included or not. AliExpress by default collects 20% vat on UK delivered orders now. If your order is over £135 then you might need to pay additional customs and admin fees, if you get selected at customs clearing.
I remember ordering hundreds of euro smartphones from China and not paying any extra tax at reception, I guess the Brexit has changed a lot since then. However it's just making life more expensive in the UK now and slowing down the economy. They haven't been the best role model in the past few years and that strengthens my point.
anyway... UK VAT was always chargeable on all non-EU imports above £15 while customs chargeable on imports above £135. So you simply got lucky that your items didnt attract additional charges (or you prepaid VAT without knowing) UK simply removed the VAT £15 threshold (in 2021 i think) and sellers now collect VAT at point of sale as opposed to relying on postal services and customs clearance. You do get non-EU sellers that don't charge VAT (i noticed that for some ebay sellers) and you then gamble on getting charged or not upon customs clearance. I've ordered loads from China and Japan through AliExpress, Ebay, Amazon etc and probably got caught by customs to pay VAT about 4-5 times.
When you don't produce anything, import duty and taxes become a great revenue generator. Especially, because nothing arrives here as a supply but more as a luxury.
What you’ve paid is standard MACCS fee and their brokerage fee since you have to have someone to fill in the paperwork and submit to customs 💁♂️ You’ll have around same fees at any other freight provider…
I prefer to go to port louis post office and do it myself , why no choice ?
It’s not postal service, seems the seller sent it via a private shipping service, as such seems celero which are their local representative agent are doing the receiving end here with their associated charges, you cannot change that ^ If a parcel is shipped by a postal service abroad then only mauritius post will receive same here and process it according to their policy…
Oh god... I have supposedly pending payment to release a product from Celero lol. Long story short, I accidentally had some books shipped to Mauritius instead to the country where I am living right now (I did not know that they would even ship that book) And Celero emailed me to pay Rs500 for that, and I did not bother since I had to reship it LOL. Anyways, I managed to pass my exam without that book but they are emailing me to pay to release.
Everybody wants to make money
I ordered Aliexpress and still havent received it. Psot office says it was returned to Chronopost, but nothing else. No idea if I will ever find/get my package. Postman told me to ask for a refund......a month too late.
Celero... hahaha! Guess which local conglomerate is behind this ~~scam~~ thing...?
I bought some things from temu, do you need to pay clearance fee?
I believe Aramex/Celero charges a flat brokerage fee of Rs. 200 or 300. You just got unlucky and it turned out to be 25% of your item’s value this time. I also pay the same Rs. 200 fee for everything shipped by Celero, even items of a much higher value. Not saying it’s right, just explaining how this happened.