I bought a bunch of goods from Pixiv BOOTH again using Buyee as proxy. Guess how it much it actually costs after including all shipping fee, tax and duties?
To simplify things, all JPY will be in IDR using exchange rate from date of purchase (2023-06-02) 1 JPY = 106 IDR.
Goodies
What’s in the bundle:
- T-shirt: IDR 424000 (JPY 4000)
- Acrylic figure (~14cm): IDR 233200 (JPY 2200)
- Stickers: IDR 169600 (JPY 1600)
Total amount: IDR 826800 (JPY 7800)
Total weight: 720g Dimensions: 40 x 30 x 10 cm
Shipping
Shipping fee from seller to Buyee - domestic: IDR 77380 (JPY 730) Shipping fee from Buyee to me (DHL) - international: IDR 387430 (JPY 3655)
Total shipping: IDR 464810
Note that Indo’s import duties calculation includes the freight cost, in this case it should be the DHL shipping fee only.
Tax, duties, etc.
Inbound charges invoice a.k.a tax and duties breakdown from DHL:
- Import export duties: IDR 497000
- Advance payment charges: IDR 150000
- Services VAT: IDR 16500
Total tax and duties: IDR 663500
Total
Total = goodies + shipping + tax, duties, etc.
Total = 826800 + 464810 + 663500
Total = 1955110 IDR
A t-shirt, a small piece of printed plastic, and a bunch of stickers cost me Rp1.955.110 in total.
Thoughts
I feel sad. Why does it cost so much for importing a t-shirt. It’s not a premium or branded t-shirt. Is it because the money went to another country, so this needs to be taxed heavily to dicourage me from buying imported goods? To keep local business flourishing?
For reference, the minimum monthly wage in my place is around IDR 49000001. That’s 40% of the monthly pay. It blows my mind every time I have to pay and realize the price disparity between a developed vs developing country 😞.
Omake - Banana for scale
1Kg of Cavendish banana from Sunpride costs around IDR 22000 in my place. Let’s say there are 6 bananas per Kg, so each banana costs IDR 4000 rounded up.
With the tax and duties alone, I could buy 663500 / 4000 = 166 bananas. I could ate banana everyday for 5.5 months straight!
Omake - Pricey doughnut
Omake - T-shirt prices
Post 16 of #100DaysToOffload.