sitti

Longer this goes on, more a country naturally adapt to it. Even though tourism is currently around 16% of GDP (before covid19), Thailand has far more important industries that play significant part of economy. Businesses and their employees that relies on tourism take a hit, but others that don't rely on tourism are surviving and will adapt to new environment. After this pandemic, most of business models will change. Less businesses will be relying solely on tourism. Small businesses that can't adapt will just disappear, something new will take over. Tourists aren't the holy grail for solving the problems. Seek good in bad. I think this is a great opportunity to "fix" the businesses that rely too much on tourism. Don't put all eggs in one basket. Of course, some people will suffer in the process.

I'm also against opening a country for tourism as of now. Thailand will become just like US and EU, then we have to go through total lock-down all over again. Government has already warned that they will do so if infections become uncontrollable. Not only the tourism in Thailand but all over the world, especially the small businesses, they just have to bear the unbearable. 

32 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

 

Reading comprehension and critical thinking not a couple of your strong points huh?

 

 

???? well, please do look in the mirror and read out loud what you wrote above

18 minutes ago, AlfHuy said:

almost the same.

I paid for my Wildtrak the same as a fully loaded S500E. (almost)

I hope you mean you bought used S500e almost at the price as wildtrak. Otherwise, I would love to visit that dealer sold you 8 million baht Wildtrak.

On 9/12/2020 at 9:49 AM, Yellowtail said:

Believe what you like, but (again) if the duty was high on 3l diesel engines, you would not be able to buy a pick-up with a 3l diesel engine for B600K.

comparing the price of pickup truck with Mercedes S-class????

1 hour ago, Yellowtail said:

 

That's a 2.9l inline six, yes? 

 

It is the excise tax, not import duty that drives up the price. Were it the import duty, pick-ups with large 3l engines would be expensive and they are not. 

I doubt it. excise tax on locally made vehicles are not that bad. What drive up the price is duties on foreign components coming into a country. Otherwise it would defeat the purpose of automakers building manufacturing plants in Thailand in the first place. They wouldn't have invested hundreds of millions of Euro building plants here. They would just ship the whole cars instead of in pieces.

3 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

But the duty on auto parts is very low, or even free if the company is BOI registered. What engine model do you have? Might be made in Germany, might not. 

 

The cost of your domestically produced S-Class is due to high excise taxes and high margins.

Mine is S350d, diesel engine. Not sure about other classes, but engines and transmissions for S-class are coming from Germany. MB dealer explained this when I bought it. Engine size is the biggest factor for determining duty. And bunch of other components are coming from abroad. They merely assemble in Thailand for cost and, especially, tax/duty purposes.

And yes, high margins. They can charge this price because they can, and upper class in Thailand or other Asian nations still pay for it.

2 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

 

As I understand it, the excessive cost in Singapore is due to registration fees more so than import duties.

 

So why does your made in Thailand S class cost twice as much has a similar vehicle in the US? It's not imported.

 

 

Because not every part of my car is made in Thailand. Engine and transmission are imported from Germany. And many other electronic components are imported from various part of the world.

Not just Thailand, all ASEAN members have high taxes on imported cars and parts. If I'm not mistaken, Singapore is the worst in terms of car prices. Believe it or not, this is what automakers asked for high import duties in order to protect their manufacturing in Thailand and sell cars in this region. Couple years ago I bought new face-lifted S-class for 8 million baht. This is the model produced and sold in Thailand, and exported to various countries. Imported S-class models like the ones with V8 engines are well over 15 million baht. Maybach S-class is 24 million if I recall correctly.

But there is a good new. It is going to get cheaper due to trade agreements signed years ago with many countries. High taxes on imported car have been gradually shrinking over the years, and it will continue to get even cheaper over the next few years. The equivalent model of S-class of 5 years ago costed 12 million. It became 4 million baht cheaper when I bought mine. 

Even when Thai authorities are promptly responding to local transmission and controlling the situation, some idiots here are just have to twist the facts around to insult people and country that you're allowed in as guests. Don't forget how lucky you are still in Thailand, not in your faranglands during this chaos, and how desperate many of you wish to stay here. Otherwise, you wouldn't have shown so much interests in immigration announcements. 

Let any business can't promptly adapt to new environment be closed naturally. Same goes for all types of businesses around the world.

4 hours ago, Pilotman said:

yes, more Thais will be meeting him very soon.

 

Done just in time for the extended holiday weekend, excellent timing chaps. 

Significantly more farangs in faranglands have already met him than Thais in the last few months for not being able to control the pandemic. 

I admire his dedication. He must love living in Thailand so much.

farangs talk about colonies????

30 minutes ago, merijn said:

The problem is not if i can afford it or not which is by the way not a issue for me but the problem is that those two hotels are the only two hotels on Phuket who offer the quarantine facilities.

And it has to be at least gold plated bathrooms for those prices ????

Article clearly says alternative quarantine option. These two are for those who want luxury. There are plenty of much cheaper options, actually most of them are. If I recall correctly, there will be 14 hotels for quarantine.

If you are complaining here, it means you can't afford it, and you are not their target customer. You would be staying in one of those cheap hotels for 14 days.

Personally, I don't have any problem paying that amount. If I'm going to be locked up, I would like to be locked up in the best luxury I can buy. I'm sure room and bathroom are going to be very luxurious and spacious, and hopefully nice ovean view. 3 meals have to be top notch as well. 

They can easily solve this without actually stopping dual pricing.

For example:

Thai: 50 Baht

Foreigner: 250 Baht

Change it to:

250 baht

*Show Thai National ID to receive 80% off

Problem solved

Just for clarification, many people seem to misunderstand about THAI bankruptcy. It is not that they went bankrupt because they just completely ran out of cash. They had to take the bankruptcy because they are no longer able to pay the debt payments. There were going to be totally out of cash in a few months if they had to pay the debts. Now that THAI have filed bankruptcy, they now don't have to pay the debts at least for quite a while, which frees up their cash-flow. They still do have adequate cash for normal operations. When borders are opened, they will continue to fly as normal.

Very simple message from Thailand. Foreign tourists are still not welcome. Only the ones with absolute necessity to enter Thailand would be willing to go through all the obstacles in order to be granted entry into a country.