AndreasHG

This is the very first thing I learned when I moved to Thailand: Without Thai women, this country would sink deep into the gulf of Thailand and disappear from the face of the Earth. What I learned thereafter was just as amazing.

Given that the crackdown happened in Phuket, it is really noteworthy the fact that the Thai authorities are not going to expel any Russian, whose destiny would be to go to Ukraine and die in Putin's war.

Last week I went to Bumrungrad Hospital because my psoriasis got much worse and, for the first time in my life, I am having a rush of atopic dermatitis. To address my symptoms, the dermatologist suggested a therapy with Scapho. The price charged by the hospital for the two prefilled 300mg pens (2 x 150mg) is 24,000 THB (12,000 THB each). The hospital charges approximately additional 2,200 THB for nursing and hospital charges. These additional charges are avoidable, if the patient self-injects the antibodies. The therapy consists of 5 weekly shots (week 0, 1, 2, 3, 4) followed by one shot every month (all shots with 300mg dosage). As an alternative to monoclonal antibodies, the hospital offers also the phototherapy with UVB-NB, but I did not investigate this option.

The new VISA policy is already having an impact: yesterday evening in Soi Cowboy, eight different Indian traffickers tried to sell me fake Rolex watches. Most of them were new to the business. Only two of them were thugs usually seen in Sukhumvit between soi 11 and soi 23. Thailand is a high-income country compared to India. Indian lowlifes will flock here attracted by the opportunities the land of Smiles grants.

How so? This new add offers job opportunities in Thailand for Laotian, Cambodian, Vietnamese and Myanmar nationals. Nothing to do with the add promoting passports commented in the past.

Below is the link to an interesting article, with the detailed description of the Thai tax schemes for alcoholic beverages, both the current ("new") and the superseded one ("previous"). The reasons which cause a bottle of wine sold for 10.00 euro in a European supermarket, to cost almost three times more to consumers in Thailand, are multiple. Assuring proper freight and storage conditions for wines is costly. Local supermarkets purchase imported goods from middlemen (the importers) and not directly from producers (as customary in many European countries). Retailers target margins on imported goods are higher than those applied to local staples (30-35% is the norm for "farang" goods). Taxes however are the single most impactful driver. My estimate is that the "new" tax scheme would allow for a price reduction of approximately 33% for a bottle now priced at around 1,200 THB. But let's try to answer your question: why have prices of wine not been reduced yet? The reasons are, in my opinion, two: 1. depreciating the current inventory by 33% is very costly. Supermarkets would immediately reflect the suppliers' reduced prices in their selling prices. But then they would revert back to the suppliers, demanding compensation. 2. And, as customary in Thailand, grand reform projects are often and purposedly executed poorly. This law is a textbook example of this malpractice. The devil is in the details: what the Thai government approved is a "temporary suspension of high import tariffs on wines, currently set at 54% and 60% of the declared value, for a duration of one year". No wonder market players are keeping their prices steady. Who in his/her right mind would depreciate by 33% the inventory in customers hands with the prospect of increasing the prices again after only few months? What has been presented to the Thai public as a grand move to support tourism and related small businesses, is actually a gift the government graciously granted to some well-connected, large, alcoholic beverages importer. https://mahanakornpartners.com/thailand-cuts-alcohol-taxes-to-spur-tourism-recovery/