Goa airport, like any airport, has a number of money changers. It's widely known that airport money changers offer some of the worst rates going. They make their profit from your last chance to exchange, and the need for your first cash in a closed currency. But this time something is curious, the displayed rates are strangely good.
I ask at the counter, but it starts to unravel pretty quickly. The number of rupees I would receive doesn't match the stated rate. I am instead handed a sheet of paper with some lower figures, and which at the end mentions a 6% tax. Oh... really...
India does have a tax on foreign exchange, but it's not 6%. The tax is in fact 0.12% of the total value, which is 50 times smaller than the supposed tax claimed by the money changer. The claimed value of 6% would then be a lie, the stated exchange rate a deception, and in my mind the process bordering on fraudulent. All this from your airport-based 'govt. approved' money changer. Always open for business, always innovating.
I ask at the counter, but it starts to unravel pretty quickly. The number of rupees I would receive doesn't match the stated rate. I am instead handed a sheet of paper with some lower figures, and which at the end mentions a 6% tax. Oh... really...
India does have a tax on foreign exchange, but it's not 6%. The tax is in fact 0.12% of the total value, which is 50 times smaller than the supposed tax claimed by the money changer. The claimed value of 6% would then be a lie, the stated exchange rate a deception, and in my mind the process bordering on fraudulent. All this from your airport-based 'govt. approved' money changer. Always open for business, always innovating.
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