PM orders review of duty free concession bidding process

 

 

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has ordered a review of the bidding process for the concession to operate duty free shops at Suvarnabhumi, Chiang Mai, Phuket and Hat Yai airports to ensure transparency and optimum benefit for the state.

 

Government deputy spokesman, Lt-Gen Veerachon Sukhonthapark, said today that the Prime Minister is aware of concerns over the bidding model used by Airports of Thailand Company (AOT), operator of the airports.

 

AOT wanted just one operator for duty free shops in all four airports, in order to make oversight more efficient, but critics claim this would effectively create a monopoly.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/pm-orders-review-of-duty-free-concession-bidding-process-2/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2019-03-16

Haha, good luck with that.  We all now the result before it happens. 

Haha, good luck with that.  We all now the result before it happens. 

No matter the headline, TVF members like yourself will have a negative comment.


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7 minutes ago, Sealbash said:

No matter the headline, TVF members like yourself will have a negative comment.


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Because I am aware of how things like this get done here. You are talking of many, many millions of guaranteed revenue over many years.  No way can this country deal with that in a fair and transparent way. If so, it would be the first time.   

Duty-free? Really! A lot of the products they sell can be found cheaper on the high-street. I don't even bother anymore, besides they haven't stocked Marlboro for years and It's only one of the biggest global brands.

Duty-free? Really! A lot of the products they sell can be found cheaper on the high-street. I don't even bother anymore, besides they haven't stocked Marlboro for years and It's only one of the biggest global brands.

I think what many people don’t fully realize is that duty-free sales at the airport really is only non-taxable.. this does not say that the BASE price (call me the MSRP) isn’t possibly higher than at traditional, non-airport retail channel may offer pricing.

I think this is also the reason that a fair percentage of items sold at duty free are things like tobacco, alcohol and cosmetics - all classes of products that tend to also carry high/higher levels of taxation.

From a sales perspective, it doesn’t make sense to devote retail floor space in an airport duty free type venue, to products that either don’t carry higher tax rates (thus the ability to highlight a large savings percentage) or whose base price is low (this requiring much higher volume sales) and/or don’t sell in sufficient quantities that then generate revenues sufficient to offset the cost per square/meter.



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I can be sorted in an instant with a couple of brown envelopes sacks????

 

1 hour ago, sammieuk1 said:

I can be sorted in an instant with a couple of brown envelopes sacks????

 

truck loads more like . A duty free concession at a major international airport is a golden goose that just keeps on laying, mainly because travellers are a captive audience who have left their buying common sense at home when at an airport. For example, when Tesco in the UK where selling one particular brand of champagne for £21,  it was retailing at £35 at Heathrow T2 Duty Free.  Same for high end watches (cheaper in Bond Street shops and makers online retail), jewellery and perfumes.  Biggest con around. 

4 hours ago, Pilotman said:

Because I am aware of how things like this get done here. You are talking of many, many millions of guaranteed revenue over many years.  No way can this country deal with that in a fair and transparent way. If so, it would be the first time.   

It was during Taskins government that King Power got the monopoly for duty-free shops. 

5 minutes ago, gamini said:

It was during Taskins government that King Power got the monopoly for duty-free shops. 

KP has been around a lot longer than that.  If I recall, their first concession was granted in the late 1980s downtown in BKK with Aer Rianta as its joint venture partner and also at Don Muang around the same time.  When the new airport was up and running, there was no doubt who would get that concession.  

I want my friend to run it all. Very transparent and good for me the state.????

I never buy at "airport duty free" whether in Thailand or anywhere else in the world.

 

At any airport "duty free" means you think you are getting a bargain but in truth we the operators (and the airports who I expect charge enormous rents) are.

8 hours ago, Pilotman said:

Haha, good luck with that.  We all now the result before it happens. 

Actually we do not know . If investigation was ordered most likely someone fell out of favourites circle or someone else made a more attractive offer ????

8 minutes ago, BestB said:

Actually we do not know . If investigation was ordered most likely someone fell out of favourites circle or someone else made a more attractive offer ????

KP's boss  died in the helicopter crash.  Enough said. 

8 hours ago, rooster59 said:

optimum benefit for the state.

He not caring about anything else other than the state is classic tinpot.  Thai duty free sucks, so it and the state can expect little business / revenue.  One should think of one's customer if you want to make money, not a government full of unaccountable autocrats. 

Edited March 16, 20197 yr by yellowboat