Sharp tax hike on alcohol and tobacco effective immediately

[Shiver]

Because of this thread, I called in a mom&pop near me, who sold a can of Leo for 36baht (I think Chang 34baht) before, and it had immediately gone up to 40baht.  I looked in the refrigerator and it didn't look like the stock was much different than any other day I walk by.  4 baht you may say is nothing, but with money I in think percentages first, price second.  It's also above what the consensus here was about the price difference, which I was guessing to be about a baht or so.  There's a place around the corner that I don't frequent too often, but last time I was there, a large Archa was 45 baht, so will have to swing by and see if their calculator on existing stock works better.

 

Today I was at a friends whose wife has a modest village shop.  Same stock same price for now (in beer I mean - no wine cigs/cigars or anything there).

[phutoie2]

Just now, The manic said:

150 to 170 for a small bottle in Big Dogs for example...So about 6 to 7 pounds a pint. I would never ever, under any circumstances drink draft beer in Thailand.

Pint of the black stuff 230 Baht in Soi 4 last weekend, still good price. If your a Brit I wouldn't expect you to drink draft beer either. We write it as draught. 

[The manic]

7 minutes ago, phutoie2 said:

Pint of the black stuff 230 Baht in Soi 4 last weekend, still good price. If your a Brit I wouldn't expect you to drink draft beer either. We write it as draught. 

Draft or Draught...if it comes from kegs via pipes its dirty and will lead inevitably, to 'the ten bob bits'. There is no cellar man tradition in Thailand and left over drinks are probably recycled. Non bottled beer is dirty. The dark beers are especially subject to adulteration with left overs and slops.

Edited September 17, 2017 by The manic

[AloisAmrein]

Anyone who likes to drink beer, must leave Thailand now. In Vietnam it is very cheap. Draught beer in Hanoi in the old quarter 10 Baht a big glass. And great food too.

[AloisAmrein]

Does Prayuth turn Thailand in an Islamic country? Or the government just wants to fill his pockets? Price of beer is worst in Malaysia, up to 14 Ringit for a 0.5 liter can in a bottle shop, in restaurants more expensive. Second is Indonesia, a large bottle of Bitang is often more expensive then the whole meal. The beer in the Philippines is not drinkable, you better drink mineral water.

 

In most countries of Europe beer has about the same  price like mineral water.

Edited September 17, 2017 by AloisAmrein

[JHolmesJr]

4 hours ago, The manic said:

'Hos'?  Speak English Please not silly insulting, racist and sexist Ebonics...The language of illiterate gutter trash.

.

If it's good enough for Jay-Z, it's good enough for me.

[Bastos60]

10 hours ago, anto said:

Yes that makes sense .Federbrau brewed and bottled in Thailand to the German purity laws .

You actually buy a brand.  

All major brands have local breweries brew their brand under license. Heineken does it (Nonthaburi), for example Tiger beer is also brewed in Edinburgh for the British market.

Federbrau is brewed by Thaibev following German purity laws, like Phuket beer with German hops and Federbrau is a thai beer inspired by German premium beers.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/breakingnews/30307400

[HerbalEd]

On 9/15/2017 at 9:09 PM, marino28 said:

As I understand the idea is to arrive at 3000 bath of tax for 1 lit of alchool. But they will do it little by little in the next 20 years. As for the price hike now I don't think is major . Maybe 10% of the price of a beer. Just my opinion 

Pardon me, but I gotta ask. Where are you getting your "facts"?

[HerbalEd]

Not surprising -- at the moment there are 39 pages of comments on this post. Shows you what's really important to tv.com-ers. 

[LatPhrao]

13 hours ago, xylophone said:

I think you will find that they import the grape juice then add "fruit juice/whatever" here then ferment it........thereby the wine is "produced" in Thailand (Mont Clair, Mar Y Sol, Finca de Malpica etc)........that's why it is so cheap, and will probably get even cheaper now?

Interesting and certainly possible that they use concentrate.  Or both.  However, the provenance of the grapes rules.  Elsewhere in the world it would be labeled as the country of origin of the juice/concentrate and then 'fermented and bottled' in Thailand.  Canada had a large issue with this a few years ago.  Using concentrate is definitely the cheapest route, as they're not importing any alcohol, cannot be taxed on alcohol until they generate it here.  And the CIF will be as low as possible, no bottles, corks or labels enter Thailand.

[LatPhrao]

I recommend to anyone worrying this topic to get ahold of Sunday's B Post front page.  They made a half page dedicated to detailing the increase or decrease item by item.

Their increases seem quite tame, except for imported wine over 1,000 baht which gets 110 baht increase.  Wine, again according to the article, gets a reduction on wine under 1,000 baht.   

Further, one of the uses of the 'sin' tax will be to increase the monthly payout to the elderly.  Thailand's meager pension of social security, which someone told me currently is 800 baht.

So if you can believe the article, little damage done, and a beneficial increase to the elderly monthly payout.

Cheers and that it bears out.

[Techno Viking]

12 minutes ago, LatPhrao said:

I recommend to anyone worrying this topic to get ahold of Sunday's B Post front page.  They made a half page dedicated to detailing the increase or decrease item by item.

Their increases seem quite tame,

Yes, many here have seen their estimations  and indeed seem reasonable, I'll hold out for the official figures though.

[anto]

1 hour ago, LatPhrao said:

I recommend to anyone worrying this topic to get ahold of Sunday's B Post front page.  They made a half page dedicated to detailing the increase or decrease item by item.

Their increases seem quite tame, except for imported wine over 1,000 baht which gets 110 baht increase.  Wine, again according to the article, gets a reduction on wine under 1,000 baht.   

Further, one of the uses of the 'sin' tax will be to increase the monthly payout to the elderly.  Thailand's meager pension of social security, which someone told me currently is 800 baht.

So if you can believe the article, little damage done, and a beneficial increase to the elderly monthly payout.

Cheers and that it bears out.

I only buy the 4 or 5 lt box of Wine here .Which i could get for just under B1000  . I guess that will be slapped with the B110 increase ?

[opalred]

the trouble going to Lao to drink 

after a skin full its getting back across the Mekong  

[abrahamzvi]

11 hours ago, Jonah Tenner said:

Yesterday's prices in Norway

One loaf of bread 96 B (23 NOK on special offer) 

12 eggs (1 package) 176 B (42 NOK)

1 pckg 20 cigarettes 475 B

Alcohol I have no idea,

My point is that everything, absolutely everything, is expensive in Scandinavia (VAT 25% and rising)

If one compares salaries and income in Norway to salaries and income in Thailand, and prices here and there then prices of food are very reasonable ( not to say cheap) in Norway. Why didn' t you quote the price of Alcohol in Sweden, Denmark or Norway?

[Kwasaki]

9 hours ago, AloisAmrein said:

I recommend everybody to go to Laos and drink Beer Lao, better then any Thai brand, and cheaper.

So l pay 1,900 bht first then go get beer. 

[xylophone]

2 hours ago, LatPhrao said:

Interesting and certainly possible that they use concentrate.  Or both.  However, the provenance of the grapes rules.  Elsewhere in the world it would be labeled as the country of origin of the juice/concentrate and then 'fermented and bottled' in Thailand.  Canada had a large issue with this a few years ago.  Using concentrate is definitely the cheapest route, as they're not importing any alcohol, cannot be taxed on alcohol until they generate it here.  And the CIF will be as low as possible, no bottles, corks or labels enter Thailand.

You make a fair point and probably why Mont Clair was originally advertised'/touted as a wine from South Africa, but that angle of advertising seems to have dropped off now,

 

I believe the Siam Winery angle is that they import the "raw material" (grape juice) add to it (Hibiscus fruit in the case of the red), ferment it and bottle it here, so call it locally produced wine.

 

Much the same as a country importing something like cotton, then producing shirts as the finished article and stating that they were made in that country? (best analogy I could think of).

 

However rest assured that Siam Winery wants the best of both worlds.......promoting a "wine" from another country, but wanting the tax breaks applicable to a locally produced wine, which to all intents and purposes it is??

[Bangkokazy]

There is not much to scream over the new taxes.
I drink 24 beers a day, after the new tax.

I can drink 23 beers a day

[jmccarty]

On 9/16/2017 at 11:09 AM, marino28 said:

As I understand the idea is to arrive at 3000 bath of tax for 1 lit of alchool. But they will do it little by little in the next 20 years. As for the price hike now I don't think is major . Maybe 10% of the price of a beer. Just my opinion 

The exchange rate is going to go to 3,000bht = $1 by then.

[shanesox]

Of course this would be unacceptable in a normal democratic country.... but here? Nothing


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[speedtripler]

1 hour ago, Kwasaki said:

So l pay 1,900 bht first then go get beer. 

vietnam beer is not as good as  beer laos but damn its cheap .........

[speedtripler]

17 minutes ago, Bangkokazy said:

There is not much to scream over the new taxes.
I drink 24 beers a day, after the new tax.

I can drink 23 beers a day

or pay a few thb more and drink the same amount ?

i dont see this affecting anyone but the lower tier of workers really .......

a bit pointless imo ......

[Pib]

Case of Leo beer bottles cost Bt588 in the Lotus store I always use before new excise tax rate went in effect 16 Sep.

Today/18 Sep the price is Bt584....price went down 4 baht.

[HHTel]

On 9/18/2017 at 7:35 AM, Techno Viking said:

Yes, many here have seen their estimations  and indeed seem reasonable, I'll hold out for the official figures though.

So the law published in the Royal Gazette and the prices stated by  the Excise Department are not official??  What more do you want?

 

[xylophone]

42 minutes ago, HHTel said:

So the law published in the Royal Gazette and the prices stated by  the Excise Department are not official??  What more do you want?

 

The correct interpretation of them, but perhaps that will be an impossibility given the fact that laws and suchlike here are often open to the interpretation of those who wish to use them to their advantage, or are put together by those folks with the mental capacity of a gnat.

[JohnLick]

2 hours ago, HHTel said:

So the law published in the Royal Gazette and the prices stated by  the Excise Department are not official??  What more do you want?

 

Businesses work on minimum target margin, not absolute numbers

 

Price before 500, margin 30% = final price 650

Increase of 100 to 600 =/ final price 750 but 600 *1.3 = 780

 

Since they like to use round numbers this usually translates to 800

 

What something should be and what people make of it are two different things

[sandyf]

4 hours ago, speedtripler said:

or pay a few thb more and drink the same amount ?

i dont see this affecting anyone but the lower tier of workers really .......

a bit pointless imo ......

Quite. The last time they put the price up I changed from Chang to Archa, now I will probably have to pay about the same for Archa as I used to pay for Chang.

[Shiver]

4 hours ago, jmccarty said:

The exchange rate is going to go to 3,000bht = $1 by then.

The USD is accelerating down the plug hole, and with THB pegged to a basket case of currencies which is heavily weighted towards USD, it's not that visible with casual observation, especially since  the rest of them are doing it too.  Long live Keynes.  Oh, wait.... he doubled died.  Go Austrian!

 

Purchasing power is a better measure.  Price of food/beer/tobacco/spirits etc compared to a decade prior.

 

[Edit]: In my ramble I missed my own point - given the state of fiat, the latest tax revision I think is extremely lenient.  Hope it's been thought through properly.

Edited September 18, 2017 by Shiver
Missed something out...

[B4Jazz]

On 17/09/2017 at 7:06 AM, Spellforce said:

What a mess !

 

Yesterday evening I went to my 7-eleven and what I noticed:

- L&M cigarettes raised from 86 to 87 bahts

- beer cans: same price

- beer bottle: + 2 bahts

- Samsung bottle: same price 302 bahts

 

What's hapening ?

- that increase is minor ?

- all 7-eleven didn"t apply the new prices ?

- shops are waiting to refill their stock to apply the new prices ? (previously all increases have been applied day 1)

They can only apply the price increase on new stock, old stock should be sold at pre tax increase price.

[anto]

Just now, B4Jazz said:

They can only apply the price increase on new stock, old stock should be sold at pre tax increase price.

Who is to know ?My local Tesco /Lotus has been good so far and not increased up to early this morning at least .