An Income Tax official shot off a letter to the administration department, calling China ‘exploitative’ & ‘narcissistic’, and asking for Indian-made bottles.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet ‘Make in India’ scheme may not have had the desired impact on India, but it has become an emotional issue for one taxman in Ahmedabad — emotional enough to shoot off an angry letter to the administrators of his department.
The Income Tax department has been providing various items to its staff for office use, such as glasses and napkins. One of these items is insulated water bottles bearing the brand name ‘Borosil Hydra’, which have been imported from China.
Annoyed by this, a senior tax official has written a letter to the administration, not only asking for the Chinese-made bottles to be replaced by Indian-made ones, but also highlighting how China has been “exploiting” Indian markets.
“As it is a matter of fact that China is such as supercilious and narcissistic country that it is utterly unconcerned about economic and overall interest of India, bearing nothing positive for us but exploiting the Indian market and extracting the precious money from our country, thereby funding their over ambitious and overarching projects which are, by no means, favourable to our country,” the official wrote.
“Therefore the undersigned, having contemplated farsighted interest of the nation, consciously return the ‘Chinese origin bottle’ with a request to replace the bottle with, in the similar range of price, any Indian brand or any other except the Chinese.”
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Flooding the market
On a serious note, though, China has been flooding Indian markets with its significantly cheaper goods, ranging from electronic devices to toys, water bottles, pencil boxes and warm clothes.
Bilateral trade between India and China increased to $89.6 billion in 2017-18, but it has been skewed in favour of China. However, in the current financial year, imports from China have fallen by 2 per cent during the April-October period compared to the corresponding period of the previous financial year.
“This may have happened due to the US-China trade row, but India needs to adopt a cautious approach,” a trade expert who did not wish to be identified told The Print.