trotbot

The x ray machines have been installed in the baggage area, so bags will be x rayed before going on the belt for collection.  They are pretty much ready to be used.

The work in the Green Channel is just routine maintenance.  There is already a small x ray machine there anyway.

Not sure what you want anyone to say.  Bringing in 200,000 Baht of anything through the green channel is illegal.  If you are caught (which is statistically unlikely but certainly possible) then are very likely to be fined and it may be confiscated.  

It depends where you are coming from and what you want. 'Duty free' prices are usally set at 20%-30% lower than the domestic price, and because Thailand has high excise taxes on alcohol it makes the Duty Free price high as well.

The selection on arrival is more high end than outbound, with very little choice at less than 1,000 Baht, and 2,000+ being the norm. As long as you are not transitting on route, it may be better to buy it at departures.

The best value alcohol compared to domestic Thai is vodka.

DF shops are still open at 11pm, I have never actually seen them closed.

I came in through the Thai fast track on 1 December without a problem.

This is one of those unique scenarios that occur in Thailand. Sophon is correct that legally, anything excise product in excess of your personal allowance requires an import license (and as private individual, this is not going to be granted). However, I have been through the red channel with excess alcohol and paid customs duty and import VAT with my passport number shown on an itemised receipt, but not excise duty as there is no way to legally collect it without a license. Customs then warn you about Excise Officers patrolling outside. Because of this risk, I no longer try my luck.

It should also be noted that the excise rates quoted in that letter are excise inclusive rates, so the 87% is actually an effective rate of 670%, on top of the CIF plus customs duty (so 670% of 1.6 times what you paid for the tobacco, and then the other taxes on top of all of that). In total, it is upwards of 1000%

Singapore has no duty free limit for tobacco and if you are seen with duty unpaid packaging in Singapore the police will search your hotel room and you will end up in court.

Your best course of action (apart from giving up of course) is to find out where to buy pipe tobacco. In Thailand, Villa Supermarkets certainly used to stock pipe tobacco, I couldn't swear that they still do. Probably worth a separate thread.

I've found that the 2 flat pin plugs with the relatively short pins don't stay in the socket very well, particularly Apple plugs. I use a 2 round pin plug now because it is longer.

Thai has 100+ films, but I've started whizzing through IMDB before take off because (through no fault of Thai) Hollywood is producing some right old crap and I'm fed up of starting a film and giving up ater 20 minutes.

On the A380 economy, try and get upstairs at the back. It is a small cabin and tends not to have children up there.

Not sure that you can. Some of the luxury brands might do, but I cannot recall seeing much in the way of shirts.

I use frio packs to keep my medicine cool, I bought them from the UK website and they do the job very well. Never had a problem going through security anywhere. I won't put medicine in the hold because it freezes and it damages it.

My recollection of the tuna sandwiches in J is they were only half filled, the side face down was pretty much empty.

It's straying a little, but the Thai lounge in Manila is truly awlful. I haven't see the rats for a while, though, so things are looking up. TG HK is ok, but tends to be too warm (not that it is TG's fault). TG SG is as boring as it comes, and TG MY is no better.

The Thai First lounge is good, Dom Perignon '04 and some decent food. It's one of the few decent perks of a TG Platinum card

Duty Free shops are encouraged to make sure that the buyer is aware of the duty free limits and transit rules for their journey otherwise they get lots of complaints from people who get caught. Some DF operators now will refuse to sell over the limit as company policy.

DF is a complete misnomer anyway, it is domestic retail minus 20%-40% typically. They don't pay duty but they never sell at a price that equals domestic - minus duty burden. That is why wine at Thai DF is more expensive that UK retail, for high end wine it is often twice the cost and has not been stored properly.

Marlboro and L&M are not sold at DF in Thailand because of a long standing dispute on treatment of domestic imports, I think the issue went all the way to the World Trade Organisation, and Thailand lost.

Thanks for the clarification, This was also my understanding.

I can understand that DF is advising people on the allowed amount but if they insist they should sell it as it is the risk of the costumer.

I agree they should sell it, but the problem is they are dealing with the lowest common denominator, some of whom will always try it on regardless of what they were told. Unless they can get the customer to sign a waiver that they have been told the risk and then store it in an easy-to-find system, it is just easier not to bother.

I have been through the Red Channel with anything between 4 - 12 bottles. They tell you to throw it away, but eventually will accept the customs duty and VAT, and provide a receipt. The problem is there is no legal way to pay the excise duty so you are still at risk from the Excise Inspectors wandering around after customs clearance. I have stopped doing it because the risk of losing my nice wine is too high, and I can't be bothered to do it for cheaper wine.

Duty Free shops are encouraged to make sure that the buyer is aware of the duty free limits and transit rules for their journey otherwise they get lots of complaints from people who get caught. Some DF operators now will refuse to sell over the limit as company policy.

DF is a complete misnomer anyway, it is domestic retail minus 20%-40% typically. They don't pay duty but they never sell at a price that equals domestic - minus duty burden. That is why wine at Thai DF is more expensive that UK retail, for high end wine it is often twice the cost and has not been stored properly.

Marlboro and L&M are not sold at DF in Thailand because of a long standing dispute on treatment of domestic imports, I think the issue went all the way to the World Trade Organisation, and Thailand lost.

As has been mentioned, they are Excise, and they are looking for alcohol and tobacco. In the past, I have gone through the Red Channel with expensive wine and declared it. Customs encourage you to throw it away and go to the Green Channel, but will accept customs duty and VAT if you insist. You get a receipt with your name and passport number, but they cannot collect excise duty because it is illegal to import commercial quantities (i.e. over one litre) unless you are a registered Excise Tax payer.

The situation is utterly ridiculous, and I have stopped doing this because it you do get stopped by Excise, you will have the goods confiscated and you may be fined, even though you paid (some) taxes.

What I don't understand is why (as far as I know) I've never seen Thai wine on the shelves of shops?

Is it not being produced? Is it not possible to produce a reasonable quality of wine in Thailand? Is the sale of Thai wine subject to the same tax?

The same with coffee and tea. The local stores only seem to sell imported products.

As for cigarettes.... its not even worth the argument! Some believe that they should just be banned or make them so expensive no-one can afford them - others think that the tax charged should be high enough to pay for the related medical costs. There seems to be no 'meeting of minds' on the subject.

BUT surely its more important to work out how we can prevent kids starting smoking in the first place?

Thai wine is on the shelves at Tops and Villa. It used to be reasonable value and I bought it to encourage the development of the industry. Now the prices are up 50%+ and the quality has reduced. Not interested anymore, sadly.

With import taxes dropping on imports from ASEAN automobiles by 2015 (SOURCE) the average consumer won't notice the government taking advantage of the AEC (free trade) benefits. The disappearing additional cost in the form of an import tariff will be replaced in the form of an excise tax. Prices should stay the same as the benefit to the free trade agreement is taken from the Thai consumer and given to the government.

This is very true,

An excise tax in an economic terms is an inland tax ie a tax on locally produced goods http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excise Thailand have used this terminology as an additional import duty. This means you pay Customs duty, excise duty and vat on some imported goods. When they have free trade aggreements like with Australia and Asean in 2015 then the only duty that is reduced is the Customs duty. Like earlier stated negative revenue loss

AEC is overhyped nonsense. Customs duty on almost all ASEAN origin products is zero already. and the rules of qualification will still apply in 2015/6. The tax burden will not change.

Cant you guys read, beer is already maxed out and needs a law change to increase tax. Read the frikin words.

Cigerettes is a mere 2% increase. it will stop nothing.

Thailand's excise calculations are wierd and misleading. Cigarettes have gone up by about 10%.

Last time that there was a big hike in the price of cigarettes, I noted that some of the people round here changed to buying the 5 baht tobacco and smoking unfiltered roll-ups. I'm sure that this cheap tobacco has a lot mire of the nasties and combined with no filter and the thick papers, I'm sure that their health is improving

The quoted excise tax rate is notional, based on a percentage of the selling price. In practice, it goes into a formula, so a quoted rate of 80% is calculated as 80%/(1-80%), which is the same as 0.8/0.2, so it is 400%. An 85% rate would be 566% and a 90% rate would be 900% (and a 99% rate would be 9,900%). The calculations for alcohol are worse, because of interior tax as well, but the notional rates are a lot lower. Cigarettes are also subject to health tax, TV tax, provincial tax (outside Bangkok) and VAT.

RH.

NO, you cannot declare and pay at the airport, period!

In order to be able to bring in quantities over the duty-free allowance you need an import licence, I don't know the process but I strongly suspect that for a personal quantity of cigars you really don't want to go there, sorry.

You need an import license for a commerical import. Despite the signs, you can go to the red channel and pay duty on imports for personal use, I've done it.

Import taxes for alcoholic beverages is 60%. To calculate the import duty first calculate the (what I call) Custom Value (CV). This is the value of goods + cost of shipping, eventually concerted to THB. The Custom tax is the CV * % duty.What you finally will have to pay is the CV +custom tax) * VAT + custom tax.

Example: you import 8 bottles of Gin, each $10. The freight charges (shipping) are $100.

CV= (8 * $10) + 100 = $180.

Assume 30THB/$ the CV in bath is 5.400.

Custom tax 60% : 3.240.

Now VAT: ( 5.400 + 3.240 * 7% is 605

Total to pay: 3.240 + 605

I'm Not a specialist but that is how I understand how it works.

Were to find custom rates:

http://internet1.cus...system/hssystem

There is also a sizable excise tax and munipical tax which is typically over 100% (depending on the type of alcohol), and is charged on the CIF plus customs duty

The US Amazon site acutally include Thai import taxes in the shipping costs. If the assessed amount is higher, Amazon pay, if it is lower, you get a refund to your credit card. Other Amazon sites sadly don't do this, and so it is a lottery when it arrives in Thailand. 70% of my UK DVDs get through without assessment, I have to pay 30% duty and 7% VAT (which is correct) on those that are stopped, but often on a lower value that I paid (go figure!).

Excise tax mainly, it makes an expensive vehicle even more costly. MB imports a lot of parts from Stuttgart, GM have a much bigger proportion locally sourced, which is cheaper.

To take advantage of a Free Trade Agreement (Thailand has agreements with ASEAN, Australia, NZ, India, and as part of ASEAN, with China, India, Japan, S Korea and Australia / NZ) the item would need to be on the inclusion list for that agreement, and you would need to get a Certificate of Origin from the supplier. Suppliers are typically unwilling to do that for small consignments for occasional customers.

As noted above, you would still need to pay the VAT, and not all duty rates are reduced to zero. The Thai Customs website has a tariff database that you can select the FTA rate for different countries.

With the greatest possible respect, there are some incorrect answers on this thread. - there is zero chance of taking a bottle not in a security bag through security- most airports do not allow transit passengers to take a bottle bought at origin to the connecting flight. I had a bottle taken off be in Frankfurt- the error was in HK, retailers are supposed to ask if the next flight is your final destination, and to warn you you might lose it if you are transiting. Complain to them, not Thai officials who are doing their jobs- it was not Customs who took it from you, it was security. Customs and Immigration do have nametags in English. Customs do not take alcohol of transit passengers, and on connecting flights to Chiang Mai, you clear Customs there, not in Bangkok- he may have been rude eventually, but you acknowledge he was polite, and so in your disappointment, is there a chance you were rude first? You seem to be very sure of your rights in your post, but you are mistaken on the principle of carrying it through transit. THis may have come across to the Inspector as being rude, at which point he wanted nothing further to do with you.In any event, there is absolutely zero point complaining in Thailand, especially to the wrong people.

The majority of voters fly economy, and Thai economy give better quality alcohol and decent seats on the way to a great holiday, so the voters are happy. They are not the 5th best in absolute terms, but they are not as bad as many posters suggest. The food and TV choice has got a lot better, and all long hauls have decent business entertainment, which an increasing number of medium and short hauls having similar facilities

<br /><font color="#0000FF">"Im a gold member royal orchid frequent flyer with Thai airways- and my  conclusion is Thai airways sucks big time, especially compared to other  regional airlines (Singapore, Cathay, Emirates). <br /><br />The planes are mostly old with <b>no in flight entertainment systems</b> even in business class and small cramped seats."</font><br /><br />I agree 100% with you re business class - try the Delhi route, the planes are old old 747s with seats out of the 70s. The UK route is marginally better. The manila route sucks. Thai still has a long way to go if it wants to be as good as it thinks it is.<br /><br />I like the older hostesses though.<br />

Its a straight competition question. The newest long haul have to go on Euro and Aus routes, as the competition is BA, LH, SQ, AF etc. India and Manila, not so much competition on direct flights. The morning flight to Manila is usually a 777 with new seats, the afternoon flight is occasionally the dreaded A300 with chemical toilets, but more often an A330 with personal screens in buiness but no interactive choice of what to watch