womble

High ranking member of the Army?

As far as I know costs 100Bt to reconnect tel.

not sure about elec.

Maybe get a friend of yours to call elec dept and ask them what standard fee is for reconnection and see what the answer is.

already phoned bkk head office. They say this is a new sytem and it's up to the local office how they deal with this. They also said as we had 3 phase it costs us more.

And.......

If we don't pay within three months of being sent the first bill the contract is finished and if you re-connect it will cost you a lot more than 6000.

I had to pay for the 3 phase to be put in, that cost me lots of $, now they wanna charge me this on top.

<deleted>@&ers!

also I gather from speaking to a few people here in samui, lots of farangs have gone home and a few returned recently to find they have these outrageous charges.

Another thing I learnt is this is not in every province, it is up to the local office if the new law is enforced.

I think a lot of home owners that are away alot will get clobbered by this.

We have also been informed that if we get discount or not it is up to the local office, seems very open to corruption to me.......

As you knew your business would be closed for 2 month why did you not pre-pay say 500baht

a month to keep the Electricity Co happy?

It seems like common sense to me?

By the way, have they read your meter and billed you?

Bills are often a month in arrears, so part of that 6000baht may simply

be settling unpaid bills.

I am not sure on the electricity service, but phone reconnection is definitely

107baht - 100 baht plus 7% vat

The Mrs was supposed to pay it but she didn't, she thought it would still be working and it wouldn't be a problem. I've given her loads of shit over it, feel a bit guilty now

The bill is over 8000 baht, 2000 baht is a week of electric, 100 and something is last months charge (with no use), + the 6000. So total is 8000+

I am pretty pissed off about this, my electric bill for the business is over 8000 baht a month, sometimes more than 10,000. Considering how much I spend with them each month they should reconnect for free.

This is why I hate monopolies, if there was competition they wouldn never risk doing this.

In UK now they are crawling over each other to get you signed up with them.

If only fuel and gennys were cheaper!!!

I have closed my business for last two months and will be doing some building work before it is opened again. It was closed up and I went away on holiday. After being away for a month and a half I returned and went to turn the lights on, guess what no electric.

Ok so this should be as simple as going to pay bill and get it switched back on.

Not anymore, I have been told that I must pay 6000 baht for reconnection, they havn't taken my box away, and I have over 3 years perfect record of paying bills. That doesn't seem to matter. The other thing is with this new rule, when you are cut off the reconnection is based on a percentage of your average monthly bill. It seems the better a customer you are the more you pay?

I was also informed that they were discounting it for me so I was lucky, normally now it would be more than 10g, <deleted>???

There were other people there at the office moaning about this new rule, none of us have been warned, it seems very unfair.

It's just a way of them to take money off customers. If they had waited a long time for payment and had to send a team round to take away the box etc, I could expect a charge maybe not as steep as 6g, but a charge to put it back.

Anyone else have experiance with this new rule?

Is this a new rule? I've been screwed by both telephone and electricity companies before, using the "re-connection" charge method.

It's not the reconnection charge thats new it's the amount of time they give you to settle old bills before they cut you off.

I was thinking about why they might have changed the goal posts, perhaps it's because of the deteriorating economy and the expectation that many people will start to forget to pay there bills.

Perhaps they are trying to cut down on future losses and the amount that customers will owe them.

buy a commercial grade MG (Motor Generator) and "F" EGAT.

Wouldn't that cost a fortune?

Fuel is real expensive at the moment.

I paid 30 baht a litre today to fill my car.

I have closed my business for last two months and will be doing some building work before it is opened again. It was closed up and I went away on holiday. After being away for a month and a half I returned and went to turn the lights on, guess what no electric.

Ok so this should be as simple as going to pay bill and get it switched back on.

Not anymore, I have been told that I must pay 6000 baht for reconnection, they havn't taken my box away, and I have over 3 years perfect record of paying bills. That doesn't seem to matter. The other thing is with this new rule, when you are cut off the reconnection is based on a percentage of your average monthly bill. It seems the better a customer you are the more you pay?

I was also informed that they were discounting it for me so I was lucky, normally now it would be more than 10g, <deleted>???

There were other people there at the office moaning about this new rule, none of us have been warned, it seems very unfair.

It's just a way of them to take money off customers. If they had waited a long time for payment and had to send a team round to take away the box etc, I could expect a charge maybe not as steep as 6g, but a charge to put it back.

Anyone else have experiance with this new rule?

Dihydrocedeine also makes you constipated.

This is synthetic codeine, same strength as codeine.

All opiates can make you constipated.

Tramadol is a synthetic opiate also, pretty strong.

Sounds like the only thing they have here for your level of pain is MS contin, although morpheine is probobally a little too strong and too adictive.

Every May Day joins people with varied issues... I'm sure among the 10,000 there were som tam sellers protesting the rise in crab prices.

In and 2006 and 2005, it was against Thaksin's various issues....some related to labor, others not. In 2004, the big concern was about getting a raise to the minimum wage, a slowdown in the economy, and unemployment concerns. Exactly the same issues voiced in the OP.

bottom line is... on May 1, it's very NOT unusual to get thousands to rally or demonstrate in Bangkok.

Yeah this ain't news, it happens every year, it just so happens that the coup is the grievance de jour, so that is one of MANY things that they are protesting about.

It just happens that AFP get a story if they make it sound like a large rally. To local news agencies it isn't news. Infact if anything the only newsworthy part is that 10,000 is smaller than it has been in previous years.

Don't know if this really relates to the topic, but I had an interesting conversation with a worker at SCB last week. When I requested to open a savings account, was told "only with a work permit". I was further told this was a new Bank of Thailand rule. Asking this gentleman how intending retirees are to have 800,000 baht in a bank account 3 months before their intended retirement, he replied "Can't do." I decided to quiz him further about Thai bank policy and asked how Thailand was going to grow without foreign money coming into the country. He replied "Don't know." The whole conversation was really kind of bizarre. I ended our dialogue with one final question, "Does Thailand even want any foreign investment coming into the country?" The reply I got wasn't what I expected. He told me the country doesn't want foreign money or foreign people retiring here. So there you have it! I guess Thailand is off my list of countries for retiring to.

That is the opinion of one man. You were probobally getting on his nerves which resulted in his answers being obtuse.

Regardless it seems ridiculous that you can't open an account without a WP, again goal posts are being moved.

Why can't they just stick with a rule and be done with it........

This country is heading into the doldrums, everywhere else is booming, whilst Thailand squanders it's chance for growth, by the time the next worldwide recession is approaching Thailand will already be in a recession, that will mean they will be severely hit when teh next enevitable worldwide slowdown happens.

The future does not look too rosy I feel.

How tall?

Or how short?

170cm or just under 5 7"

My problem with exercise is I find it so boring. I hate Gym and I can't get motivated when swimming lengths. If snorkling or with a speargun I will swim miles, I also enjoy kayaking.

I think I need to play squash, tennis etc. There needs to be something to occupy me more than simply exercising, I simply find it so tedious that I give up.

I'm 29 years old adn I don't think I am really unhealthy, just overweight. At 83kg I wasn't even obese, just had a bit of a beer gut and a 2nd chin that was getting embarressing!

For the second time I am on a diet and I lose 1-1.5kg a week by stopping drinking beer and eating healthy.

First day of diet 3 weeks ago I was 83kg, I weighed myself yesterday and I am 78kg. I do not go to gym or do any other exercise. I drive most places.

Whilst on diet a typical breakfast consists of mixed fruit salad and cup of tea (low fat milk), once or twice a week I will have scrambled eggs on brown toast, no butter.

Lunch will be fish, prawns with salad or veg, dinner will be similar, mostly fish or vegetables, a few times a week chicken. I always eat till full, if I am hungry between meals I eat fruit.

I eat breakfast early, lunch between 12-1 and dinner 6-7.

I feel healthier and the weight is falling off me. If I want to drink alcohol I drink vodka lime soda, although I am only going out around 1 time per week at moment.

I think i'll have to be careful when I reach my target weight of 70kg, last time I went from 80 down to 70kg I put all the weight back on, it took a few years though. I think I will weigh myself weekly and work ouyt excatly what I can eat and drink if I want to maintain the wieght without gaining.

I put almost 100% of my weight gain down to beer, I think if I drink lower calorie drinks that will be enough to keep me at a sensible wieght.

Ihave never seen so many toyota landcruisers per capita in any country as cambodia !

The cars are not manufactured there, the LandCrusers came from Japan.

Large number of imported expensive 4WD you saw in Cambodia made you not believe stories and stats about poverty there?

The secret could be - all the UN and other NGOs who were there after Paul Pot, simply dumped the vehicles for a nominal sum instead of taking them back.

If you see pictures from Bosnia, Kosovo....you may also think life is great there since every second car is either LandCruiser, 4 Runner or Nissan Patrol.

to me it only shows how crap the roads must be

I have a Diamond which I want to make into a ring.......

No not one of the gem scams, but a family Heirloom. Anyway I am looking for a high-end, trustworthy Jewelers that can take this diamond (cut already), and make it into a ring.

If anyone has any suggestions it would be appreciated.......

Just saw Paradon anhd miss universe on tv and they mentioned a Jewelers called Tong Uan, anyone know this?

I sold a 1.5 rai plot in Samui last month for 8.5m. It was bought by a farang.

Thats the last thing I own here freehold, everything else I have is leasehold, 6-30 years commercial stuff.

king power has stopped selling thai cigs and booze but letting people buy any amount of otheres with a 10% discount on ten or more cartons dont think they will go king power has lots of contacts and deep pockets

sounds like they wanna piss someone off!!!

Would be good for him politically....

Probobally just another way to get him in the news though.

A currency which loses 100% of its value is then worthless.....if you take away 100% of anything then there is none left......this rarely happens but does occasionally....rusually when a gov't loses a war and the old currency becomes worthless. And to take this to the absurd level actual paper currency never becomes completly worthless because it always has a recycle value as paper. In high school on a test the teacher asked "Is it possible for currency to literally be not worth the paper it is printed on?". The teacher wanted the answer to be "yes" but I put "no" and was at first counted as wrong but when I explained to the teacher that the paper currency IS the paper it is printed on so the only way it can be worth less is for it to be destroyed physically the teacher agreed that my point was valid and gave me credit for my answer (much to the teacher's credit).ic

Chonwah

Oh, please. It's just a doubling factor when it comes to currency. You can lose 100 percent of a currencies value relative to another currency or 1000 percent relative to another currency. It's simple math, baht goes from 34 to the USD to 340 baht to the USD, the baht has lost 1000 percent relative to USD currency. I'm happy you're teacher thought you were a bright student.

Nice back pedal...

yes handled that well didn't you - rule #1 never lose temper - it makes you the one at fault

reads to me as if they were in fits of laughter , not losing their temper ......................

Yeah, stupid post from crow boy there..............

Sounds to me like the OP dealt with the situation well, the waitress is just a dumbass too embarressed to remedy the situation, instead she says he must have eaten the bone??

<deleted>???

And if she doesn't know the difference between a sirloin and a T bone she shouldn't be working in the establishment.

Okay more details start to come out. It's important to say that at that point nothing is done.

There are six key amendments.

First, the new draft will focus on the voting rights of foreign shareholders. If a company is 49 per cent foreign owned but foreigners hold more than 50 per cent of its voting rights the company will be defined as a foreign one.

Second, it will take out more businesses covered under Annex III. This will allow these businesses, such as insurance and non-commodity futures market, to be covered by specific laws.

Easy tactic : you remove some items, some of them very, very specific in the financial field (futures market !), so you can say "I ease". And after you write another law to "tighten".

Third, the new draft will remove the amnesty for those violating the nominee law.

Fourth, the draft will increase the penalty for those violating the Foreign Business Law - from three to five years in jail, and from Bt100,000 to Bt1 million in fines to Bt500,000 to Bt5 million.

Point 3 and 4... Is that what they call a "friendler" approach ?!

Fifth, it will expand the period from two to three years for foreign companies operating in Annex I and Annex II to revise their ownership structure to conform to the new law. Moreover, foreign companies in Annex III must inform the Commerce Ministry within one year that they have foreign ownership status before continuing to operate as normal.

One year more for a few big companies that operate in List 1 and 2. Great. And a big trap for all the other : "come to me baby, I will not harm you. It's just a formality".

You can be sure that once the Commerce Ministry will have its database of companies, that basically have bypassed the law before, it will use it for other amendements. That's the trap.

Sixth, a 17-member committee will be formed to rule whether a company is Thai or foreign owned in case of a dispute.

This article was specifically designed to please the NLA members who have presented the famous draft number 3 (or 2 I don't remember). Basically, they proposed that a "committee" would rule, on a case by case basis, if the company was "thai" or "foreign" ! Of course, this idea was totally insane and unpracticable.

Therefore, to save face, the Cabinet proposes now a "committee" in case of... dispute... It's pathetic

It is also aiming to make it clear once and for all that using nominees to circumvent foreign-ownership caps is prohibited.

The use of nominees has fueled the thai economy for the last 30 years. Using nominees was not a choice from foreign investors and entrepreneurs. It was the only way to bypass this insane law that created 2 differents regimes for conducting businesse on the same soil (companies "thai" and companies "foreign", with less rights, restrictions, and more red tape).

If the thai authorities want... really... to stop that, then it's more than shooting in their feet. It's the end of business developpment in Thailand. Not more, not less.

Again : they don't seem to understand that an investor want to keep control over the money he puts on the table.

They are so naive and arrogant that they seem to truely believe that foreigners are going to invest, create businesses in Thailand, and then give... the control locally to thais !

They should understand that if it's easy to scam a tourist and ask him to pay 400 THB to visit natural park because he's foreigner... the foreign business community is much more aware. Money comes and goes. Other countries in SEA open up.

However, the Commerce Ministry insists that its draft is better than those from the assembly and the Council of State.

Lie. Basically, the core remains exactly the same.

The ministry's new draft takes into account key concerns raised by the Cabinet and the foreign business community, said Skol Harnsuthivarin, secretary to Krirk-Krai.

Lie. They continue to push forward, without listening to the real concerns of foreign business community.

It's important to note that we saw since november some rather strong comments and reactions from the foreigners (even on the diplomatic level). It's unprecedent. That's a sign that this issue is really serious. Thai authorities don't want to listen. Too bad for them.

The new draft removes the amnesty clause because it would like to create fairness for Kularb Keaw, now under police investigation over allegations it acted as nominee for Singapore's Temasek Holdings in the Shin Corp takeover.

Again... vapors and smoke. The Shin scandal is a diversion. Temasek has violated specific laws (like Telecom Act and Transportation Act with Air Asia). It would be very easy to nail them on the Shin deal. With a real will. Since one year, thai authorities are talking about the gender of angels and are working very, very hard to say if Temasek used or not, thai nominees. It's so funny.

But to say after : "we are very sorry, mak, mak we need to change totally the law for all the businesses because of big Shin scandal" is an insult to our intelligence.

Asked about the impact of the new draft on foreign investors' confidence, Pramon said he believed they would not withdraw from the Kingdom. All existing businesses will be able to operate freely under the new draft, but new ones might need time to study it more closely, he said.

I bet they will "study it more closely". So closely, that they will divert their investments to other countries !

As for the exisiting businesses, use the word "operate freely" again it's an insult to common sense.

Board of Trade deputy secretary-general Pornsilp Patcharintanakul said the private sector was delighted with the government's move to put all companies on an equal footing.

I bet they are delighted ! Less competition, more protection, easy money for them. And to use the word "equal footing" is amazing, even by thai standards.

FBA is everything but an equal footing. It is a discriminatory law, by essence !

Excellant Post!

One thing though.......

They continue to push ahead with these changes simply to protect their own businesses. The international business community here in Thailand knows that and I believe Us government departments and european departments are also aware of that.

If they do push on with this they will be in breach of WTO commitments, as much as they want to do this I don't think they actually can.

Although they are too stupid to realise it.

Or are they.....

I expect the Thai futures market had a busy day today before this news was released.....

"I'm Bored"

Yeah you must be if you have to write about how bored you are.

Get a hobby!

If you order electronics from abroad mail order please remember the import duties can be extremely high, sometimes 100%+!!!!!

Get an invoice stating it's ex dem or reconditioned for a much lower figure (which ofcourse it must be or else you will be breaking the law)

If it were to happen it would be interesting..........

With the constitution suspended though I doubt we will be seeing one.

They are real papers, issued by the land dept official but they are fake in that they aren't correct. ie issuing a chanote title for a piece of national forest land, all for a fat bribe, would, to most people, make it invalid.

Yes I agree there has been much talk about illegal upgrades , but that is not a fake paper it is an genuine paper but not legal because it was not issued correctly .

Perhaps they are talking about the same thing , but with the wording being different .

Quite often things are lost in translation..........

The fact remains there is a great deal of dodgy land on this Island, whether it is fake papers as in counterfeit does it really matter. Whether they are fake papers or real papers issued illegally by those in authority makes little difference, the fact remains the land isn't legally allowed to be built on and never was.

Incidently for those that paid for proper searches by Bangkok lawyers there shouldn't be any problems, doing so myself I found several plots which were dodgy and being offered by local lawyers as being a safe buy. Needless to say I gave them a wide berth. Had I used a local Samui Lawyer i'm sure I could eb one of the unlucky ones now stuck with one of those plots.

Now from the same site, "market report":

http://www.himmapanbeachsamui.com/images/p...onairesclub.pdf

"Beautiful Koh Samui is rapidly developing into an up-market destination, with trendy restaurants, shops and bars, and even a 6* hotel – making it one of Asia’s investment hot-spots. Unaffected by the 2004 tsunami, several areas have been declared ‘Green Zones’ by the Government, tightening planning consents, and approval for the 2nd airport and completion of the new marina in 2006/7 will drive property values up."

So we are living in a paradise, we just didnt notice it yet.

And the

"Focus Business Report: Koh Samui

An overview of the Samui market, confirming figures of an 20% per year cap growth. "

is from June 2005!

Claude

I didn't reaslise that the 2nd airport had been approved ! and where is the new marina ??

Neigher did I.......

Complete <deleted>.......

Mmmm BBQ Mackerel.........