Handyman’s Tax Free Adventures.

GST, Cash and Home Repairs.

Oh, don’t even get me started, Siri. Sigh. It’s your dear Aunt Selvi here, and I’m absolutely livid about what happened with the home repairs. If I don’t vent now, I’m going to lose my mind. So here it goes—I’m letting it all out because, honestly, someone needs to hear this.

We hired this guy, Arulsami, for some repairs at the house. And let me tell you, this was an absolute disaster. Not only did he do a shoddy job—trust me, shoddy doesn’t even begin to describe it—but the man didn’t even give us any details about the work. Nothing. Zip. And to top it all off, he left the job incomplete. Can you imagine? A complete mess. And when I went to question him about it, guess what he says? He tells your mother—that’s my sister Rema, by the way—that it’s perfectly fine to pay him with a cheque, but give it to three different people to avoid GST. Yes, three. Because somehow, paying a little bit of tax is just too much for this genius.

And here’s the kicker. This is the same Arulsami who had the gall to call me anti-national when I refused to link my Aadhar card! I swear, what is it with some people? One minute they’re throwing around labels like they’re confetti, and the next they’re trying to dodge taxes like it’s a game of hide-and-seek.

Now, hold your horses, because it gets even better. Do you know what Rema has to do? She has to go all the way to Bandra from Dadar just to make a payment! All because Arulsami doesn’t want to accept a cheque or a net transfer. Oh no, he insists on cash only. Can you believe it? “Why unnecessarily pay GST,” he says. Unbelievable.

But here’s the thing. You know me, Siri—I can’t just sit there and let it slide. I decided I had to find out what this whole GST thing is all about. So, I did a little digging, and now I’m going to school you on it.

GST, you see, is a tax system that India adopted back in 2017. It’s a single tax that replaces all those other intermediate taxes. I know, sounds complicated, but trust me, it’s pretty simple. The idea is that the vendor collects the tax from the end user, and then the vendor passes it on to the government. All nice and clean. It’s a single tax applied throughout the country. But no, Arulsami doesn’t like the sound of that. He thinks it’s all a conspiracy to ruin his little tax-free operation.

Now, get this—there are different tax slabs for all kinds of goods and services, and Mr. Arulsami doesn’t seem to know or care about any of them. So here’s the rundown for you, in case you ever have the misfortune of dealing with someone like him:

1. Zero percent tax: Applies to certain foods, books, newspapers, homespun cotton cloth, and hotel services under Rs. 1000.
2. 0.25 percent tax: Applies to rough industrial diamonds. (Not something Arulsami is likely selling, though, I’m sure.)
3. 5 percent tax: This is for things like apparel under Rs. 1000, packaged food, footwear under Rs. 500.
4. 12 percent tax: Applies to apparel over Rs. 1000, frozen meats, cutlery, sugar, biodiesel—basically your regular household stuff.
5. 18 percent tax: For those little luxuries like makeup, pastries, swimming pools, and footwear over Rs. 500.
6. 28 percent tax: This one’s for the big-ticket items—luxury goods and “sinful” items like cars, motorcycles, bidis (Indian cigarettes), sunscreen, and even ceramic tiles. Yes, tiles.

Now, if Arulsami’s trying to charge you GST on materials used for repairs, you need to know what tax slab applies to the service you’re getting. For example, if you hired him to build a roof, he can’t just slap a GST charge on the raw materials. That’s not how it works! There’s no reason for that. And if you’re unsure, you can always check the tax slabs or even file an RTI request to get the correct information.

But honestly, I’m not even sure if home repairs are under GST yet. That’s something I need to find out because, let me tell you, if they are, the whole thing gets even more interesting. So, I’ll keep you posted on that one.

But here’s the bottom line: before you hand over any cash to someone like Arulsami, make sure you’re armed with the right information. Otherwise, you’ll end up paying more than you bargained for—both in money and frustration.

Unbelievable, Siri. Just unbelievable.