Its complex because they are not fools.

"GST (goods and services tax) is still a complicated tax regime with varying slabs, not easy to comprehend or comply with, and open to interpretation, harassment and avoidable litigation," wrote Captain GR Gopinath. "The GST council has fitted over 1300 goods and 500 services under four slabs of 5%, 12%, 18% and 28% under GST. This is aside the tax on gold that is kept at 3% and rough precious and semi-precious stones that are placed at a special rate of 0.25% under GST," explained Kotak Mahindra Bank. The system is complicated because it was intentionally designed to be so. There is a 10% customs duty on gold and a service tax of 1% for having to pay the duty, GST at 3% and VAT at 1.2% on the price of gold, customs duty and service tax , taking the total tax burden to 13.3% on pure gold, explained Aditya Birla Capital. On gold jewellery total tax works out to 24.85%. "India imports 800-900 tonnes of gold annually," wrote PB Jayakumar. "Various agencies estimate over 200-250 tonnes of gold is smuggled into India every year and that represents about one-fourth of the gold consumed in India." "According to Customs sources, the Customs and DRI seized 550 kg of smuggled gold in Kerala in 2019-20." The government can and does add taxes as it pleases under various pretexts. A tax on GST, varying from 3% to 204%, known in India as cess, is added on various products, depending on whether they are classified as 'luxury' or 'sinful' or both. No wonder, there are apparently 400,000 businesses which have been deemed to not having paid proper amount of GST, amounting to a total of Rs 9.3 trillion. The government introduced a 'Vivaad se Vishwas', meaning 'From Dispute to Trust' which promises not to persecute anyone who pays up whatever they demand. So far 45,855 have surrendered to the terror and paid a total of Rs 724.80 billion. Indian flatbreads, known as chapatis, are taxed at 5%, but when they are fried they are known as 'parotas. "A clever tax sleuth came up with the brilliant finding and slapped 18% GST, arguing that chapati and roti are flatbreads whereas parotas are layered breads and hence do not qualify for the lower tax slab," wrote Gopinath. Then there was the case of a GST raid on a poor 'kachoriwala' in Aligarh accused of hiding annual income of Rs 7 million. 'Kachoris' are fried savoury snacks. While the US government is to provide $17 billion to US airlines, in addition to the $25 billion they have already received, for coronavirus disruptions, jet fuel prices have been increased by 7.6% on 1 December, 6.3% on 16 December, 3.69% on 1 January and again by 3% on 16 January in India. Charges at Delhi Airport have also been increased making it more expensive to fly in or out. The outcome of exorbitant taxes is that most goods and services are out of reach of a vast majority of Indians who are grateful to receive handouts thrown at them if they are seen to be politically correct. Americans pay less tax so they are rich, we are taxed into poverty. Why is it so difficult to understand?