Indian Startup Founder Points Out That India And Europe Have The “Highest Indirect Taxes”

Indian startup founder and investor Akshat Shrivastava has taken to X (formerly Twitter) to compare indirect taxes in India and the rest of the world.

In his post, he asked, “What do we get after paying so much GST?”

COMPARISON OF INDIRECT TAXES AROUND THE WORLD

In his post on X, he wrote, “Europe and India have some of the highest indirect taxes in the world.”

Akshat Shrivastava noted that the US state sales tax is in the range of 2.9% to 7.25%.

For European nations, the imposed indirect taxes range from 17% to 27%. For the UAE, it is 5%, and for Australia and Canada, it is 10% and 5%, respectively.

As for China, it ranges between 6% and 13%, whereas in India, it ranges from 5% to 28%.

Stating how indirect taxes trickle down to everybody and the difference in the services and quality of infrastructure in India and Europe, Akshat wrote, "At least in Europe: you get good pavements to walk. And, non-eroded roads. What do we get after paying so much GST?”

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NETIZENS REACT

An X user defended India and responded to Akshat’s post by writing, “Europe too has bad roads and other issues. Though, not at the scale we have. Europe is struggling now with the influx of migrants from India…Canada is already in a mess.

He added, “We have issues, but with the population we have, we are doing great, I say.”

A Chartered Accountant shared his views and wrote, “High indirect taxes should mean better infrastructure, but in India, we get potholes, tolls on already-taxed roads, and endless compliance headaches.

Europe gets smooth pavements - we get challans for driving on broken ones.”

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WHO IS AKSHAT SHRIVASTAVA 

Consistently vocal about the impact of taxes in India, Akshat Shrivastava is an MBA from INSEAD.

According to his LinkedIn profile, he started his career as a Public Policy Consultant to the Government of India and eventually transitioned into the realms of consulting (at BCG), mentorship (at the UN), and investment.

In 2021, he founded Wisdom Hatch as India's “biggest investment community.” On the other hand, the Wisdom Hatch Fund (of which Akshat is the CEO) is a close-ended macro-driven fund that invests across various asset classes.

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