Old Wisdom for the New Age
Once upon a time, the city of Damascus got all its sugar from India. The price of sugar in India was one rupee a kilo. So, the merchants in Damascus used to add the expenses they had incurred, along with a profit margin, and sell one kilo of sugar at two rupees in Damascus. But one day, a merchant in Damascus began to sell sugar for one rupee per kilo. All the merchants in the city were quite upset with him, but chose to ignore. They would comfort each other, saying that he won’t be to survive for long with this unreasonable pricing strategy.
However, many months passed, and that one merchant continued to sell tons of sugar at the same price – one rupee per kilo. Now, the other merchants were worried. They could not understand how one could sell sugar at cost price and still continue to keep up in the market. Together, they decided to invite him for dinner. He came, was welcomed, and served a sumptuous meal. Then, the merchants locked the door and told him that he could not leave until he revealed how he was able to sell sugar for months without earning any profit.
The merchant said that it isn’t really sugar that he sells. The customers, attracted by the unbelievable offer of one kilo sugar at one rupee, came to his shop in hordes. The sugar is placed on a large piece of cloth lying on the floor. People bought more sugar than they could carry back. This created a need for bags. That is where the merchant saw an opportunity and started selling bags at a huge profit. But nobody questioned the price of bags when the actual bargain that they had come for – sugar – was the best deal in the city.
There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch
We would say that the merchant was still being honest to his customers. But imagine if listening to his idea, some greedy merchants starts selling bags that had holes, such that sugar would leak back to the very mass from which the customers had placed it in the bags. That is exactly what the companies offering free ITR filing may be doing. While the “free filing” offer may sound as sweet as sugar, customers who run to these shops are unaware of the potential leakage of their confidential data. Customers throng to these portals to save a few rupees. However, they may end up losing much more by being lured into buying financial products that they do not even need, but earn high commissions for agents.
There is, though, still a website that based on its trust, has become the only company to run a profitable online filing business in India – TaxSpanner.com. Recognized as India’s largest tax filing company for a period of two years consecutively, TaxSpanner charges a reasonable fee for the most professional income tax filing service in the market. Known for its advanced security standards, the website never sells its data to a third party and is extremely accountable in providing data privacy.
