Another new tax on wine?

[bankruatsteve]

Informed by our local distributor of my favorite wine that a new tax (import duty?) amounting to over 100 baht per liter and a price increase over 50%.  Another ill conceived idea that I hope will backfire soon.  I wonder if government officials are exempt?  Sales will crash and perhaps the affected countries will put a tax on Thai rice.  Oh oh, didn't think about that.  Just another example of greed and exploitation of 'farangs'.

[KittenKong]

Is that on top of the recent massive increase, or just your distributor applying that increase a bit late?

 

I noticed the other day that whereas previously one could buy 8 litres of Mont Claire for 1200B (150B/litre), today one only gets 3 litres for 1149B (383B/litre). Better box wine would cost well under 100B/litre in many EU countries.

 

Luckily I dont feel the need to drink wine here but I sympathise with those who do.

[bankruatsteve]

1 minute ago, KittenKong said:

Is that on top of the recent massive increase, or just your distributor applying that increase a bit late?

 

I noticed the other day that whereas previously one could buy 8 litres of Mont Claire for 1200B (150B/litre), today one only gets 3 litres for 1149B (383B/litre). Better box wine would cost well under 100B/litre in many EU countries.

 

Luckily I dont feel the need to drink wine here but I sympathise with those who do.

Don't know about the timing but two weeks ago we paid B980 for 5 liters of Mont Clair and now it is over B1500 for the same package.  Big C has the 3 liter box for B1009 but I have previously not seen that size.

[ChidlomDweller]

Just one more nail in the coffin.  When people get tired of a country it's rarely one thing but death by a thousand cuts.  Then there's also the world's most idiotic law, the one regarding permitted alcohol buying times.  ?

[BritManToo]

7 hours ago, bankruatsteve said:

Don't know about the timing but two weeks ago we paid B980 for 5 liters of Mont Clair and now it is over B1500 for the same package.  Big C has the 3 liter box for B1009 but I have previously not seen that size.

Full Moon dark, 300bht for a carton of 12 x 275ml @7.5% alcohol.

Eminently drinkable, and after the first two bottles you no longer care it isn't real wine.

 

@ChidlomDweller, Mom and pop stores don't care what time it is.

[bankruatsteve]

3 minutes ago, ChidlomDweller said:

Just one more nail in the coffin.  When people get tired of a country it's rarely one thing but death by a thousand cuts.  Then there's also the world's most idiotic law, the one regarding permitted alcohol buying times.  ?

Well, you don't want all the school kids out there buying booze before school or during lunch, do ya?  And you can't expect the sales clerks to check an ID and figure out the age.  I don't think there is a Thai word for 'logic' that captures the meaning.

[bankruatsteve]

3 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Full Moon dark, 300bht for a carton of 12 x 275ml @7.5% alcohol.

Eminently drinkable, and after the first two bottles you no longer care it isn't real wine.

Eew.

[ChidlomDweller]

12 minutes ago, bankruatsteve said:

Well, you don't want all the school kids out there buying booze before school or during lunch, do ya?  

Come to think of it, I'd probably be tempted myself, given the state of education here.  

[Stocky]

8 minutes ago, bankruatsteve said:

Well, you don't want all the school kids out there buying booze before school or during lunch, do ya? 

Well they're not going to be buying wine anyway, not when you can buy 2 or 3 bottles of Yoong Thong for the same money!

[BritManToo]

3 hours ago, Stocky said:

Well they're not going to be buying wine anyway, not when you can buy 2 or 3 bottles of Yoong Thong for the same money!

No tax at all if you buy 'lao kow' normally sold in a Red Bull/M150 bottle from your local 'mom & pop' shop (10-20bht/bottle).

(You didn't think they were really drinking Red Bull, did you?)

Edited August 1, 2018 by BritManToo

[3421abc]

I saw some low prices wine from Chile the other day. I would think since Thailand has a free trade agreement with then it should be cheaper.

[newnative]

    The high taxes are ridiculous, from a totally clueless government.

[dinsdale]

5 hours ago, bankruatsteve said:

Well, you don't want all the school kids out there buying booze before school or during lunch

11:00 am - 2:00 pm and 5:00 pm - midnight. Lunch is one of the times you can buy booze.?

[lincolnshire poacher]

I don't particularly like Thai beer but I don't mind a glass or 3 of wine and I m no expert so I am easily pleased, but to get a bottle of plonko  half decento that would cost3-4 quid in Bargain Booze in the UK, I;m looking at c800 baht. It must be to prevent the brewers of Chang etc from losing money and that near wine that you can buy made from fruit juice, you would need more than 3 glasses of that before it tasted OK

[GreasyFingers]

If the wineos moved away from the air-con they would realise that it is too hot to drink a decent wine.

[bankruatsteve]

21 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

11:00 am - 2:00 pm and 5:00 pm - midnight. Lunch is one of the times you can buy booze.?

Oh, right.  Who knows how they came up with those times but I sort of recall it had to do with the school kids.  I never did hear the 'logic' for it.

[Psychic]

Our wine consumption since the last price gouge has been precisely he bottle on the wife's birthday.

 A couple of glasses in the evening were a little treat.

 

Now we're saving money and the government is getting no taxes.

 

I'm sure we are not alone.

 

Raising taxes only makes sense if your total tax revenue increases.

 

I suspect that may not be happening here.

 

I've heard of too many people saying "not paying that."

 

[dinsdale]

3 minutes ago, bankruatsteve said:

Oh, right.  Who knows how they came up with those times but I sort of recall it had to do with the school kids.  I never did hear the 'logic' for it.

Yep. It was Thaksin. Be 15 yrs ago I guess and yes the reasoning was to stop school kids drinking. Absolute nonsense.

[moontang]

1 hour ago, 3421abc said:

I saw some low prices wine from Chile the other day. I would think since Thailand has a free trade agreement with then it should be cheaper.

Chilean is fine...100 TH B per bottle in the US...Jacobs Creek 170 THB...I would take the Chilean...

[bankruatsteve]

25 minutes ago, lincolnshire poacher said:

I don't particularly like Thai beer but I don't mind a glass or 3 of wine and I m no expert so I am easily pleased, but to get a bottle of plonko  half decento that would cost3-4 quid in Bargain Booze in the UK, I;m looking at c800 baht. It must be to prevent the brewers of Chang etc from losing money and that near wine that you can buy made from fruit juice, you would need more than 3 glasses of that before it tasted OK

My wife and I enjoy happy hour together for years.  Until about 4 years ago that consisted of several bottles of Leo.  One night about 1/2 way through the first glass we looked at each other with the same thought:  Why are we drinking this piss?  That's when we changed to box wine Mont Clair from RSA which is probably at the low end of "good" but it's definitely not bad and a lot cheaper than most of the crap that is sold for 800-1000 baht for 750 ml.  In California, a very good wine can be had for 300-400 baht.  But yeah, I don't know if something changed with the domestic beer or maybe tastes change with age but I find them all to be not much better than piss these days.

[Weasel100]

We all know that the Thais are remarkably stupid people and successive Thai Government have been playing screw the falang for years.
They are so stupid and short-sighted that they just can't see that incessant increases in the cost of wine will backfire and we falangs who did drink wine before simply won't drink boxed wine at ****king extortionate prices. They also just don't get the fact that boxed wine is supposed to be a cheap alternative to proper wine in bottles.
STUPID, STUPID STUPID

Edited August 1, 2018 by Weasel100

[moontang]

2 minutes ago, Weasel100 said:

We all know that the Thais are remarkably stupid people and successive Thai Government have been playing screw the falang for years.
They are so stupid and short-sighted that they just can't see that incessant increases in the cost of wine will backfire and we falangs who did drink wine before simply won't drink boxed wine at ****king extortionate prices. They also just don't get the fact that boxed wine is supposed to be a cheap alternative to proper wine in bottles.
STUPID, STUPID STUPID

they would shoot themselves in the foot for 100 THB now, instead of 20 TH B per week for life.

[jmccarty]

I see the pinch too now.  405bht 750ml bottles of kiwi blanc, same label but no grape variety label on the front.  On the back says "sav blanc grapes with added alcohol"  This is the same liquid as in the boxes, but just much higher priced by volume.  Welcome to the new normal!

[tomas557]

7 hours ago, bankruatsteve said:

Big C has the 3 liter box for B1009 but I have previously not seen that size.

Seems you live back in time.

 

As Kittenkong says, 3 liter Montclair is 1149 now at Big C, and the exact same price at every supermarket I have been, and has been like this for at least a month. It was 1009 prior to that,

[bankruatsteve]

1 minute ago, tomas557 said:

Seems you live back in time.

 

As Kittenkong says, 3 liter Montclair is 1149 now at Big C, and the exact same price at every supermarket I have been, and has been like this for at least a month. It was 1009 prior to that,

I guess Udon Thani moves at a slower pace.  We bought the 3 liter box at the Big C in Ban Dung this past Sunday for B1009.

[moontang]

200 ml Jameson now 329 at 711..only 25% more than Virginia...first good cocktail  have had here in years....actually since bringing  a liter of Jim beam back from duty free for 700..

[from the home of CC]

40 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

Yep. It was Thaksin. Be 15 yrs ago I guess and yes the reasoning was to stop school kids drinking. Absolute nonsense.

About the time he was ordering up the wholesale slaughter of dopers in the streets Duerte style.

[Weasel100]

Look folks. I think I'm pretty typical of foreigners here I think although I seem to be more down on the Thais than most.
I am not short of money but, as anywhere else, even in my former home Australia, I will not allow myself to be screwed by people I wouldn't piss on for wine that's at best just passable as wine of a kind.
Decent bottled wine is ridiculously expensive in Thailand. $AUD40 or more for a French Bordeax. Why? Because, by and large, Thais don't drink it. Most Thais drink beer or cheap shitty "Whisky" - I hesitate to call it that.
I will drink beer mainly as an alternative to incredibly over-priced wine. I will not play their stupid game and I will not let them rip me off. They are the ones who will suffer when importers stop importing wine because it's too ***ing expensive to be saleable. The previous revenue that these stupid ****ers had from wine sales will then simply be gone and up will go VAT from 7% to 10%. Watch this space

[ukrules]

16 minutes ago, bankruatsteve said:

I guess Udon Thani moves at a slower pace.  We bought the 3 liter box at the Big C in Ban Dung this past Sunday for B1009.

This is the price increase that happened months back.

 

All the old stock continued to be sold at the old prices until they ran out. At that point the 3 liter boxes appeared at the new price.

 

It's a rip off.

[Shouldhaveknownbetter]

If you do not like the tariffs placed on Western goods such as California wine and French cheese,  Twit Trump.  I know, I know, Trump is this, Trump is that, but he is doing the tariff dance right now and it would be a good idea to let him know how Thailand is ripping off the United States on tariffs.  A three dollar bottle of California real wine but generic, costs about 900 baht at rim ping.  Twit him and keep on twitting.