bentleyboy

"Without any license plates" but it has a front plate in the video.Seems like the graduate student may have tried a little evasive action at the checkpoint, as the battered front fender suggests. Or something did go wrong with the "reassembly" ?

I can only feel sad for the wast of time and money to conduct this dog an pony show of an "scientific investigation" where there are probably hundred of violent crimes everyday where nothing is done because nobody cares and it does not have to make the news.

Anyway, that is what happens when insane luxury taxes are imposed in a country like this. State would make more money, and less would go to corruption if the rates were kept within reason.

PAZ, The car in the video is a 2 doors dark interior ( I think, this one seized after the fire of the transporter ) The one in the photo is a 4 doors and beige interior.

The one in the photo is not even a Bentley!

It IS a DSI investigation and if they say it's a Bentley, it's a Bentley.

Even if it isn't.

"Without any license plates" but it has a front plate in the video.Seems like the graduate student may have tried a little evasive action at the checkpoint, as the battered front fender suggests. Or something did go wrong with the "reassembly" ?

I can only feel sad for the wast of time and money to conduct this dog an pony show of an "scientific investigation" where there are probably hundred of violent crimes everyday where nothing is done because nobody cares and it does not have to make the news.

Anyway, that is what happens when insane luxury taxes are imposed in a country like this. State would make more money, and less would go to corruption if the rates were kept within reason.

PAZ, The car in the video is a 2 doors dark interior ( I think, this one seized after the fire of the transporter ) The one in the photo is a 4 doors and beige interior.

An injection of a large amount of funds, yes, but into the country? Hmmm!

It's a problem which should be addressed ASAP but America should probably impose sanctions on itself too with about about 18,000 people trafficked to the U.S. each year, according to the State Department.[/size].

http://www.wgbhnews.org/post/human-trafficking-modern-day-slavery-america

By contrast though America takes serious steps to prevent it and punish those responsible.

When has Phuket business' ever cared whether they have repeat customers? The answer is never. It's gouge the customer every chance they get and to hell with repeat business. It all goes back to the live for today, tomorrow will take care of itself mentality.

gone down hill rapidly, I feel sorry for the people who spent megabucks on property here, their paradise is rapidly

becoming a nightmare, and tourists are too savvy, and will look elsewhere. very sad to see watch how they are killing the goose that laid the golden egg.

Two years ago a family friend asked me if it was safe to holiday with his family in Phuket, as he had read some

adverse stories, I replied that these were exaggerated, and that there was really no problem. If asked the same

question today I would have to advise against.

They have to fund the rice subsidy somehow (only a quarter of which actually goes to the farmers)

Perhaps he could outline the source of the funds to purchase these luxury cars.

There would be a paper trail if he paid the correct tax. This should be an open and closed issued if he has the paperwork.

Yes. But could get tricky if he continues to assert that the cars were only 'left with him'.

An interesting weasel move to claim the car is owned by someone else. But according to his statement in the story, he is claiming tax has been paid. So I guess if somehow the tax has not been paid, Chalerm feels he will be off the hook. It is always tricky to try and pin down a snake... :-)

"The deputy prime minister said today the Rolls Royce which belongs to his son’s Singaporean business partner was legally imported with tax payment in full to the Customs Department."

And to add extra humor, it appears he actually owns two of these cars. One with a license number of 4444 as mentioned in this story, and one with 2222 as shown in the photo below

Lady Penelope.

Thailand exports over a million cars a year to countries that don't impose the ridiculous rates of tax that are

levied here. You cannot expect to export freely whilst effectively closing your own market. Europe should impose

taxes of 350% on Thai exports into the EU, meanwhile the smugglers are making millions per vehicle providing plenty

of finance to fund the necessary paperwork.

In Chiang Mai please, I will put up Lewis and Nico at my house free of charge!

"I believe Boonsong does not have the figures on rice stocks in the warehouses and how much rice has been sold last year and this year."

I don't think anyone has the figures on rice stocks, both in store or sold!

This whole affair is getting the PTP in deeper and deeper each day.......ratings agencies may be starting to smile a little at the fiasco unfolding here with the Government...and this is only one of the many scams being mismanaged by the Govt.

I don't think the rating agencies will be smiling, I think they will be reaching for the alarm bell.

The Mekong is the star of the trip for about the first hour of the boat ride, it sounds fascinating, but it's a tedious way to get to LP, take the plane and a short boat ride when you get there.

This whole situation beggars belief, the country folk are being bribed with an unsustainable subsidy, while the folks at the high table are about to pull off the biggest heist in history, meanwhile the electorate sit by benignly like lambs to the slaughter...... wake up!!!!

It's not small change by any means but the numbers are in THB and not USD so don't get carried away. And as a percentage of GDP the actual losses are small, just before somebody (you know who) chirps in that the rice scheme will bankrupt the country..

It is more accurate to look at the costs as a % of government revenues, rather than GDP. Viewed in this light the B 400 bn (cumulative loss) would equal 13%, These are huge, and unsustainable numbers, and have rightly got the attention of the rating agencies. Yingluk needs to stop this madness before it ruins the country, or she can continue to fiddle while Rome burns.

In my opi ion, just don't go to phuket. It look like they are really against foreigners.

Why, because they have to fill out a registration card when checking into a hotel? Pretty much the same all over the world.

But the registration cards are not submitted to the police all over the world. It is unnecessary bureaucracy, just like 90 day reporting.

The Commerce Minister has been instructed to reveal the full costs of the scheme, at this point, but why was this ever necessary ? Shouldn't the figures already be in the public domain, under any transparent regime, it simply begs the question, what have they been trying to hide ever since the scheme started ?

And preparing figures to supply to Moody's themselves, why not make those same figures available-to-all on an on-going basis, including the tax-payers whose money has been lost on this foolish adventure ?

It's embarrassing that even the PM herself still doesn't know the facts, from month-to-month at least, no wonder she finds it hard to answer questions and runs away from the reporters' questions. Perhaps her brother should have kept her better-informed, perhaps she should have insisted that he do so, or perhaps its time to sack 'her' ministers who have failed to brief her properly !

The figures ought to detail current-volumes and ages of the government rice-stocks, and mark-to-market prices, not show them at purchase-cost, but will they ? Or will fudge continue to be the order-of-the-day ?

Full details of government-to-government deals must now be released, with the identities of counter-parties revealed, and tonnages contracted/shipped detailed, so that they can be verified by independent sources, also the prices agreed and actually paid (if yet paid), the time for claiming commercial-confidentiality is now way past !

One might also hope for more information on the BAAC, and how much of the government's debt in respect of this scheme, has ever been reimbursed to them, until then the markets and public might well question whether the bank's finances remain sound. This is serious stuff, given other recent bank-failures and the 1997-situation, the government's silence would risk serious loss-of-confidence in the Thai banking-system.

Until then, the market (and ratings-agencies) are fully-entitled to question the true cost of the scheme, and to threaten to down-grade Thai debt, in advance of the massive long-term borrowing demanded by the delayed flood-works and the ambitious infrastructure-improvements planned.

But somehow one doesn't expect the full truth to emerge just yet, despite all the promises, the excuses and blame-laying has a long way to run as yet.

Embarrassing when the PM doesn't know the facts you are assuming she wanted to know the facts

The prime minister knows the facts, she is delaying her answers until the facts have been massaged to fit the Pheu Thai mantra.

Yingluck will be looking forward to addressing the rice farmers, they love her and wont ask difficult questions, they will happily take the money regardless of the severe damage it does to the Thai economy. More troublesome are the pesky journalists, and opposition politicians who are not as easily duped by the crazy business model she tries to defend. It goes like this:-

We will buy all the rice you can produce at prices significantly above world levels.

We will build huge silos to store the excess rice we cant sell

we will sell what we can at significant losses.

As inventories grow we will dump excess stocks on the world market depressing rice prices and compounding our problems.

The huge rice stocks that are still left and become unsalable will not be counted in our calculations.

The programme costs will exceed our original estimates by at least 400%

The losses are embarrassing, so the bean counters have been told to go back and cook the books. The rural poor might swallow it, the journos, opposition, and more importantly the international rating agencies certainly wont buy this fiction, which is unravelling before the prime minister's eyes.