Thai Parliament Set to Decide on Controversial Liquor Bill Today

[snoop1130]

 

The opposition People’s Party eagerly awaits Parliament's decision on its "progressive liquor bill" today. This bill, a key election promise by the reformist Future Forward Party in 2019, aims to liberalise Thailand’s alcohol market. Future Forward, having evolved into the Move Forward Party, was blocked from forming the government in 2023 and eventually dissolved. Its members have now regrouped under the People’s Party banner.

 

The bill is up against two other proposals from the ruling Pheu Thai Party and its coalition partner, the United Thai Nation Party. Parliament’s decision to read each bill individually, rather than together, has heightened concerns that government MPs will oppose the People’s Party’s initiative.

 

Taopiphop Limjittrakorn of the People’s Party, who previously faced legal trouble for operating a craft beer business without a licence, champions the bill. His proposal includes controversial provisions allowing individuals to brew liquor or beer for personal use without permitting.

“The certification is for supervisory purposes,” counters Pheu Thai deputy spokesman Chanin Rungtanakiat, who cites public health concerns. Recent poisoning incidents from homemade brews underscore the risks involved.

 

While recent legal changes have somewhat liberalised brewing, the People’s Party argues that these only superficially ease the restrictions, maintaining barriers for small-scale producers. With Thailand's alcohol market predominantly controlled by seven corporations, the bill advocates for breaking this oligopoly and supporting grassroots economies.

 

Today's parliamentary vote will determine whether the People’s Party bill clears this significant hurdle, shaping the future of Thailand's alcohol industry.

 

File photo for reference only

 

-- 2024-10-01

 

[nakhonandy]

The laws do need revising to allow smaller brewers into the market.

[dinsdale]

Thailand might "controversially" leap into the 21st Century. Well I don't think this is a good idea. Progression should be quelled by all corrupt means possible.

Does this bill also cover the absolutely anachronistic prohibition of sales of alcohol midnight to eleven in the morning and two to five in the afternoon. I hope not. This would be a very bad idea. Imagine the turmoil if one could actually go to the supermarket at 10:30 am or 2:30 pm and purchase alcohol. It's obviously a serious health issue and possibly a threat to national security.

Edited yesterday at 01:51 PM by dinsdale

[dinsdale]

1 hour ago, snoop1130 said:

the Move Forward Party, was blocked from forming the government in 2023 and eventually dissolved.

Re-write: the Move Forward Party, was corruptly blocked from forming the government in 2023 and eventually dissolved for threatening the royalist military establishment's control on power and wealth.

[ikke1959]

All laws should be reviewed and the alcohol sales hours, the extreme tax on imported alcohol should be banned too.. They want to stimulate the economy, but they withhold it with the outdated laws and the so called protecting of the Thai people, instead of let them have freedom to invent and give possibilities.

[Tropicalevo]

I have no issue with the taxes or the no alcohol hours.

I can buy what I want 24/7.

However, smaller breweries should be allowed so that we can drink decent beer rather than the Singha, Leo etc  sweet stuff that have been the only ones available for years and running a monopoly.

(Big C are pulling the more independent beers off their shelves already!)

[renaissanc]

8 hours ago, dinsdale said:

Thailand might "controversially" leap into the 21st Century. Well I don't think this is a good idea. Progression should be quelled by all corrupt means possible.

Does this bill also cover the absolutely anachronistic prohibition of sales of alcohol midnight to eleven in the morning and two to five in the afternoon. I hope not. This would be a very bad idea. Imagine the turmoil if one could actually go to the supermarket at 10:30 am or 2:30 pm and purchase alcohol. It's obviously a serious health issue and possibly a threat to national security.

It could even lead to a revolution or world Wwar! Maybe also to the end of the world! .... I love your humor.

[hotchilli]

10 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The bill is up against two other proposals from the ruling Pheu Thai Party and its coalition partner, the United Thai Nation Party. Parliament’s decision to read each bill individually, rather than together, has heightened concerns that government MPs will oppose the People’s Party’s initiative

A done deal then.

[hotchilli]

7 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

All laws should be reviewed and the alcohol sales hours, the extreme tax on imported alcohol should be banned too.. They want to stimulate the economy, but they withhold it with the outdated laws and the so called protecting of the Thai people, instead of let them have freedom to invent and give possibilities.

The price of imported alcohol, beer and wine in this country id ridiculous...

we're forced to consume the rubbish the Thai brewers make.

[ronster]

Still waiting on them reducing the price of wines etc from reducing tax on them 🙄

[Frankie baby]

They've got about as much chance of getting the freeze took off this monopoly as the Brits have with their frozen pensions on the other news thread.

Edited 19 hours ago by Frankie baby
wrong wording.

[topt]

11 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The bill is up against two other proposals from the ruling Pheu Thai Party and its coalition partner, the United Thai Nation Party. Parliament’s decision to read each bill individually, rather than together, has heightened concerns that government MPs will oppose the People’s Party’s initiative.

So what exactly are the other 2 bills proposing that's different. Anybody know?

[Hamma]

8 hours ago, Tropicalevo said:

I have no issue with the taxes or the no alcohol hours.

I can buy what I want 24/7.

However, smaller breweries should be allowed so that we can drink decent beer rather than the Singha, Leo etc  sweet stuff that have been the only ones available for years and running a monopoly.

(Big C are pulling the more independent beers off their shelves already!)

Carabao, the best tasting Thai Beer. was only available at Big C and Lotus a few months. It’s off the shelfes now.

[GiveMeAColdOne]

Dear Beer Importers,

 

While you're waiting around for this legislative shenanigan to play out, please consider importing some of the WONDERFUL non-alcoholic (N/A) brews that are currently available in Europe.  For those of you scoffing at the thought, I only say "hold your judgement until you try them".  Guiness 0.0 sales are skyrocketing in Ireland as are other N/A brands liked Leffe, Brand, Grolsch, etc. throughout Europe.   For centuries people have considered that the person who can invent a hangover cure will be King.  Well, it's done.  Drink to your heart's content and avoid the problems and hangovers associated with alcohol.

 

Unfortunately, the only readily available local N/A brew, Heineken 0.0, remains at the lower end of the N/A quality range -- which is why we need the Importers to step up their game.  

 

Thanks,

GiveMeAColdOne (preferably a N/A one!).

 

[john donson]

alcohol, your friend, you see proof every few days on AN

[kingstonkid]

10 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

All laws should be reviewed and the alcohol sales hours, the extreme tax on imported alcohol should be banned too.. They want to stimulate the economy, but they withhold it with the outdated laws and the so called protecting of the Thai people, instead of let them have freedom to invent and give possibilities.

I think there has to be some sort of control process.  Not so much restricting but licenising and knowing who is brewing in what area in case of problems with the brews

[Marco51]

2 hours ago, ronster said:

Still waiting on them reducing the price of wines etc from reducing tax on them 🙄

the last I heard on that was that the rather substantial reduction of the 360% tax and duty on wine (being the preferred liquid of the foreign devil......and a certain x-PM - if over 100k/bottle)

would go out the window right away...........well 1) right away is not really translatable and 2) the supermarkets will have a say in the end price. They do it in all western countries, raising all consumer prices way beyond the inflation rate and forgetting to lower them again when inflation is down. Oh what joy to be a neoliberal capitalist today, licence to print money and we all buy the paper and ink and provide the labour too.

[black tabby12345]

Taopiphop Limjittrakorn of the People’s Party, promoting Brewing Deregulation.

...His proposal includes controversial provisions allowing individuals to brew liquor or beer for personal use without permitting...

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Under the existing laws, liquor production must come with license.

But these things are already Openly Sold:.

 

Home Brewing Malt Hops Yeast ทำเบียร์ หมักเบียร์ ต้มเบียร์ (thaibrewshop.co)

 

Amazing Thailand, isn't it?

 

 

[ronster]

1 hour ago, GiveMeAColdOne said:

Dear Beer Importers,

 

While you're waiting around for this legislative shenanigan to play out, please consider importing some of the WONDERFUL non-alcoholic (N/A) brews that are currently available in Europe.  For those of you scoffing at the thought, I only say "hold your judgement until you try them".  Guiness 0.0 sales are skyrocketing in Ireland as are other N/A brands liked Leffe, Brand, Grolsch, etc. throughout Europe.   For centuries people have considered that the person who can invent a hangover cure will be King.  Well, it's done.  Drink to your heart's content and avoid the problems and hangovers associated with alcohol.

 

Unfortunately, the only readily available local N/A brew, Heineken 0.0, remains at the lower end of the N/A quality range -- which is why we need the Importers to step up their game.  

 

Thanks,

GiveMeAColdOne (preferably a N/A one!).

 

Tried Heineken 0.0 and it was foul .

Was like a cross between flat sprite and soda water.

[zig]

2 hours ago, Hamma said:

Carabao, the best tasting Thai Beer. was only available at Big C and Lotus a few months. It’s off the shelfes now.

I agree. It is quite good and have also Dunkel and IPA varieties. You can still buy it at Villa Market.

[Foxx]

4 hours ago, hotchilli said:

The price of imported alcohol, beer and wine in this country id ridiculous...

we're forced to consume the rubbish the Thai brewers make.

 

The price of imported spirits is much lower than in the UK (and probably many other countries).

No one is forcing you to consume any alcohol.

I just wish they'd import slimline tonic.  I don't want all that sugar in my G&T.

[crazykopite]

Sadly it won’t get passed as the big guys won’t allow it as their to greedy in the UK I used to brew my own the homemade kit was very reasonable they could do the same in Thailand if they wanted !

[Skeptic7]

Surely any ruling will be, in typical Thai fashion...clear as a Porter or Stout. 

[Roo Island]

2 hours ago, Foxx said:

 

The price of imported spirits is much lower than in the UK (and probably many other countries).

No one is forcing you to consume any alcohol.

I just wish they'd import slimline tonic.  I don't want all that sugar in my G&T.

I'm in the UK right now and imported wine is cheap. Getting very drinkable wine for 250B a bottle. The same bottle, if you could even find it, would be at least double in Thailand. Probably triple.

 

Ridiculous laws created decades ago and now protecting some of the richest families in Thailand

[connda]

17 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

His proposal includes controversial provisions allowing individuals to brew liquor or beer for personal use without permitting.

Anything that adversely impacts the Thai alcohol monopoly will not be allowed.

[Gknrd]

I'm a tea totter, not even a beer. But, if folks want to drink, and want variety then I think it is their decision. I know in the US there are all kind of small brewerers that make beer, and allot of beer enthusiasts love these places.  Same with wine here.

[TimBKK]

Defeated by vote 237-137, unsurprisingly.  Article on the BP website.  

[spidermike007]

Thaopipob Linjittkorn, or Thao as he is more popularly known, a lawyer and homebrewer, was very publicly arrested in 2017 for making beer. He used that publicity to win an election to Parliament in 2019, along with 80 other members of the Future Forward Party. This progressive, pro-democracy party included in its platform a detailed plan to deregulate the beer industry, as well as a proposal for the legalization of marijuana, citing both as ways of putting money into the pockets of small businesses and local farmers. 

 

The opposition that Future Forward was up against is a military-backed, hardline government that supports the duopoly with strict regulations that allow it to control over 99% of Thailand’s estimated 180 billion baht ($5.8 billion) beer industry. The duopoly was originally made untouchable with the first Thai Liquor Control Act in 1950, a law which has been amended several times since to push legality even further out of reach of any small brewer. Prayuth's administration has done much to reinforce the isolationist and nationalistic policies that Phibul established in the 1940s and ’50s, and has called again and again for citizens to display a certain level of “Thainess,” which the PM defines in part as unquestioning loyalty to the government. Do not be disobedient! 

 

For some very small men, craft beer is associated with anti-establishment politics. “It’s very similar to the French Revolution, which started from a cafe in Paris, where people drank coffee,” says Taopiphop. “The fuel of the revolution is not coffee any more, it’s craft beer.” Taopiphop adds that, after the 2014 coup in Thailand, many pro-democracy activists chose to meet in Bangkok’s craft beer bars.

 

If only the younger Thais were allowed to express themselves, be inventive, be creative, be industrious, and use their smarts and ambition, Thailand could have a future. Craft beer is needed here, and so are the young entrepreneurs. But, that future appears to be suppressed at every turn by dinosaurs, who only answer to money, money, and even more money. Money is the God of lesser men. The money first attitude is holding back Thailand on so many levels.

[spidermike007]

11 hours ago, Roo Island said:

I'm in the UK right now and imported wine is cheap. Getting very drinkable wine for 250B a bottle. The same bottle, if you could even find it, would be at least double in Thailand. Probably triple.

 

Ridiculous laws created decades ago and now protecting some of the richest families in Thailand

The wine import duties in Thailand are insane, and the government is denying themselves a potentially huge industry in fine wine at wine shops, good hotels, wine events, wine festival. The wine could be promoted on so many different levels and there's no doubt that if they got rid of so many of the taxes that are applied to wine and reduced the import duties by 80% across the board at the wine industry would be 10 times larger than it is now.