THB35 Customs charge on package from UK.

[5davidhen1]

Today, I retrieved a package by visiting Chaiyaphruek Post Office.

Apparently, if my phone number had been on the package, the postman/woman would have phoned me to agree the fee prior to delivery.

I'm not quibbling about the charge, but I've never had to pay it with previous identical packages. The post office informed me that the fee represented "7%." If my maths is correct, then 100% would equate to THB500, which I think was the gram weight of the package.

Is this fee something new?

 

[worgeordie]

They collect VAT on parcels arriving from overseas now , couple weeks ago I was charged

25 Baht , how did you not know....

 

regards Worgeordie

[Puccini]

@5davidhen1

Could you post a copy of the receipt you got for the 35 Baht?

 

Had the sender of the parcel affixed the obligatory customs label with the description and the value of the contents of the package?

[5davidhen1]

17 hours ago, worgeordie said:

They collect VAT on parcels arriving from overseas now , couple weeks ago I was charged

25 Baht , how did you not know....

 

regards Worgeordie

Because I hadn't heard or read anything about it and the last package I received was over a year ago.

[5davidhen1]

15 hours ago, Puccini said:

@5davidhen1

Could you post a copy of the receipt you got for the 35 Baht?

 

Had the sender of the parcel affixed the obligatory customs label with the description and the value of the contents of the package?

I'm sorry, Puccini, but my hands are too shaky to take a pic which is clear enough to read. It was an A4 sheet of paper --- looks quite genuine with the THB35 clearly stated.

The customs declaration on the package averred that the package contained prescription drugs with a zero value. 

 

[The Fugitive]

8 minutes ago, 5davidhen1 said:

the package contained prescription drugs

Do you have some sort of licence to import medicines?

[5davidhen1]

1 minute ago, The Fugitive said:

Do you have some sort of licence to import medicines?

No, they are for my personal use, and the contents of the package is not what I sought clarification on.

[The Fugitive]

2 minutes ago, 5davidhen1 said:

No, they are for my personal use, and the contents of the package is not what I sought clarification on.

Understood thank you. Maybe this no longer applies? 'Under section 12 of the Drugs Act, B.E. 2510 (1967), no person shall manufacture, sell, import or order into the kingdom any modern drug unless such person receives a license from the licensing authority. Thus, bringing drugs or ordering drugs to be shipped into Thailand by post is not allowed'.

[redwood1]

1 hour ago, The Fugitive said:

Understood thank you. Maybe this no longer applies? 'Under section 12 of the Drugs Act, B.E. 2510 (1967), no person shall manufacture, sell, import or order into the kingdom any modern drug unless such person receives a license from the licensing authority. Thus, bringing drugs or ordering drugs to be shipped into Thailand by post is not allowed'.

 

Its not up to big brother to decide why herbs, or supplements. or vitamins or medication ect.....I can use or not use.....Nope never...

 

I will buy what ever I want.....But I dont think I would say its a medication on the package.....Thats not smart...

Edited yesterday at 02:49 AM by redwood1

[5davidhen1]

42 minutes ago, redwood1 said:

 

Its not up to big brother to decide why herbs, or supplements. or vitamins or medication ect.....I can use or not use.....Nope never...

 

I will buy what ever I want.....But I dont think I would say its a medication on the package.....Thats not smart...

I always ask my daughter to put the truth on the customs declaration. She's sent my drugs to me 3 times now declaring such. Not once has my package been interfered with. 

[Tropicalevo]

49 minutes ago, redwood1 said:

 

Its not up to big brother to decide why herbs, or supplements. or vitamins or medication ect.....I can use or not use.....Nope never...

 

I will buy what ever I want.....But I dont think I would say its a medication on the package.....Thats not smart...

 

What planet are you from?

Big (Thai) Brother can and does decide what you can import.

Up to you if you decide to break the law.

[redwood1]

2 minutes ago, 5davidhen1 said:

I always ask my daughter to put the truth on the customs declaration. She's sent my drugs to me 3 times now declaring such. Not once has my package been interfered with. 

 

Well I am very happy you have had no problems...As it should be...

 

But there have been plenty of threads here of people who had all kinds of customs problems with declared medication....

[scorecard]

2 hours ago, 5davidhen1 said:

I'm sorry, Puccini, but my hands are too shaky to take a pic which is clear enough to read. It was an A4 sheet of paper --- looks quite genuine with the THB35 clearly stated.

The customs declaration on the package averred that the package contained prescription drugs with a zero value. 

 

Keep in mind that the gov't may be pushinsg all gov't agencies to collect some form of fee to offset the costs of operating those agencies. 

 

Or, in other words, why should Joe Public who never has any business whatever with the customs department be paying into taxpayers general funds to operate that agency? 

[Puccini]

18 hours ago, 5davidhen1 said:

I'm sorry, Puccini, but my hands are too shaky to take a pic which is clear enough to read. It was an A4 sheet of paper --- looks quite genuine with the THB35 clearly stated.

The customs declaration on the package averred that the package contained prescription drugs with a zero value. 

 

 

Thank you for this additional information. It helps me to assess your situation better.

 

The conclusion is that you were fortunate to have had to pay only 35 Baht.

 

The details:

1. With the declaration of medicine, customs at many post offices would not have allowed delivery of the package. Perhaps your post office does not have a customs official looking over their shoulders.

 

2. The declared value of the contents must reflect the cost of purchase of the content, not the amount paid by the recipient (in your case zero)

 

3. Packages with a value of not more than 1,500 Baht were, and perhaps still are, exempt from import duty. It appears that no import duty was assessed for your package.

 

4. Quite recently, the Thai government decided to assess the prevailing rate of Value Added Tax (VAT) on every import with a value of 1 Baht or more.

 

5. The zero declared value was obviously false. You can imagine the burden on the individual post offices and the delivery delays if every package had to be referred to customs, which incidentally would probably incur an additional fee for customs inspection. I suspect that a rule was established and perhaps published in the Royal Gazette to the effect that post offices are allowed to assess and collect the VAT directly for packages exempt from customs duty and, where the declared value is zero or suspiciously low, to assess VAT based on specific parameters, eg weight of the package and/or declared category of the contents.

 

Edited 8 hours ago by Puccini

[The Fugitive]

4 hours ago, Puccini said:

 

Thank you for this additional information. It helps me to assess your situation better.

 

The conclusion is that you were fortunate to have had to pay only 35 Baht.

 

The details:

1. With the declaration of medicine, customs at many post offices would not have allowed delivery of the package. Perhaps your post office does not have a customs official looking over their shoulders.

 

2. The declared value of the contents must reflect the cost of purchase of the content, not the amount paid by the recipient (in your case zero)

 

3. Packages with a value of not more than 1,500 Baht were, and perhaps still are, exempt from import duty. It appears that no import duty was assessed for your package.

 

4. Quite recently, the Thai government decided to assess the prevailing rate of Value Added Tax (VAT) on every import with a value of 1 Baht or more.

 

5. The zero declared value was obviously false. You can imagine the burden on the individual post offices and the delivery delays if every package had to be referred to customs, which incidentally would probably incur an additional fee for customs inspection. I suspect that a rule was established and perhaps published in the Royal Gazette to the effect that post offices are allowed to assess and collect the VAT directly for packages exempt from customs duty and, where the declared value is zero or suspiciously low, to assess VAT based on specific parameters, eg weight of the package and/or declared category of the contents.

Very helpful thank you. The reason I asked about ; 'Restricted Items' was due to personal experience. My Thai Mrs told me she was going to post a Buddha statue. I advised her that Royal Thai Mail wouldn't accept it. She didn't believe me but soon returned from our Post Office with the parcel. 5davidhen1 obviously needs his medication and if this method works for him I believe he should continue. However, he probably already realises he needs to have a 'plan b' in case, one day, it doesn't.

[5davidhen1]

Thank you to Puccini, and The Fugitive.

I intend to continue allowing my daughter to send me the packages, which amount to 1 or less per annum, with my phone number being appended at the end of my address. 

Regarding a "plan B":

My UK GP  prescriptions are free, my being 73 yrs old.

I can, and have in the past, bought my Simvastatin from local pharmacies, Boots being the cheapest.

My other drug is a steroidal-based nasal drops medication named Betamethasone which I have (so far) been unable to find here. Fascino's told me that they may be able to "order it" but at the time of my enquiry (maybe 3 years or so ago) they suggested quite an expensive price.

At the end of the day, the Betamethasone is not a "life or death drug", and I can always pick up some supplies when returning to the UK for holidays.

[hotandsticky]

11 minutes ago, 5davidhen1 said:

Thank you to Puccini, and The Fugitive.

I intend to continue allowing my daughter to send me the packages, which amount to 1 or less per annum, with my phone number being appended at the end of my address. 

Regarding a "plan B":

My UK GP  prescriptions are free, my being 73 yrs old.

I can, and have in the past, bought my Simvastatin from local pharmacies, Boots being the cheapest.

My other drug is a steroidal-based nasal drops medication named Betamethasone which I have (so far) been unable to find here. Fascino's told me that they may be able to "order it" but at the time of my enquiry (maybe 3 years or so ago) they suggested quite an expensive price.

At the end of the day, the Betamethasone is not a "life or death drug", and I can always pick up some supplies when returning to the UK for holidays.

 

 

Do you not have to be UK resident to receive free NHS prescriptions?

[KhunBENQ]

On 11/23/2024 at 2:49 PM, worgeordie said:

They collect VAT on parcels arriving from overseas now

Yes rules have changed. And didn't they also want to charge for values less than 1500 Baht?

 

I regularly order supplements from iHerb. They have stopped using postal packages but go through Flash Express which handles the import. Stuff delivered to the door without any extra payments.

Yesterday (24th) package from the US arrived, ordered on the 20th! 

Free delivery for > 40 USD.

Disadvantage: only three items per shipment.

[KhunBENQ]

 

Edited 2 hours ago by KhunBENQ

[5davidhen1]

8 minutes ago, hotandsticky said:

 

 

Do you not have to be UK resident to receive free NHS prescriptions?

As far as the authorities are concerned, I am "on holiday" and reside permanently with my daughter.

Indeed, if I needed major, (expensive) but not urgent care, I would return home --- I have after all, been paying into "the system" for my entire life.

For various reasons discussed on this forum, pensions being one of them, I am of the opinion that UK authorities should only be told what they absolutely need to know --- Why should my state pension not receive the annual uprating received by UK nationals who have chosen to remain in the UK --- and who are continuing to be a far greater burden on resources than expats???   

[KhunBENQ]

Deleted 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by KhunBENQ

[The Fugitive]

17 minutes ago, hotandsticky said:

Do you not have to be UK resident to receive free NHS prescriptions?

The rule is 'lived in UK during the previous six months'. If returning to UK upon a 'permanent basis' you are entitled to NHS services immediately. However, the only time I have been asked that question was by the check-in machine when checking-in for an outpatients appointment at my local NHS hospital.

[hotandsticky]

2 hours ago, 5davidhen1 said:

As far as the authorities are concerned, I am "on holiday" and reside permanently with my daughter.

Indeed, if I needed major, (expensive) but not urgent care, I would return home --- I have after all, been paying into "the system" for my entire life.

For various reasons discussed on this forum, pensions being one of them, I am of the opinion that UK authorities should only be told what they absolutely need to know --- Why should my state pension not receive the annual uprating received by UK nationals who have chosen to remain in the UK --- and who are continuing to be a far greater burden on resources than expats???   

 

 

I don't disagree with what you are doing - I share your philosophy about having "paid in".

 

Nevertheless, I just wanted to confirm that free NHS prescriptions would not normally be available to someone living in Thailand for 184+ days. 

[hotandsticky]

1 hour ago, The Fugitive said:

The rule is 'lived in UK during the previous six months'. If returning to UK upon a 'permanent basis' you are entitled to NHS services immediately. However, the only time I have been asked that question was by the check-in machine when checking-in for an outpatients appointment at my local NHS hospital.

 

 

I had the same when I returned for a hernia op.

 

 

My point (if indeed there was one) was regarding the 'legal' position with free NHS prescriptions.