Economy Experts Urge Thailand to Scrap Tiered Cigarette Tax

[JoePai]

10 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

A good stupid idea without thinking.. Make vaping which is less unhealthy illegal but the normal cigarettes makes the cheaper, which worse for your health and will cost more for healthcare of the people.. The best solution is make vaping legal and tax it and the same with cigarettes all at least 42 % tax on it.. Look at the wines.. they are too expensive too because of the tax, and although it promised to lower the tax it never is done and the prices are still too high.. With less tax people will buy more with the result that the tax income will be more.. and for cigarettes it is the same if you want that people stop smoking make it expensive.. Find out what InEurope a package of cigarettes costs because of the high taxes... and I know there will people say Thai people earn less, but if the price will be 100 THB a pacakage I am sure there will be less smoking. The problem however is that the rich owns the tobacco industry and they don't want to loose money and profits, the rest they don't care about 

Please stop being sensible - some forum members can't accept  🤣

[BangkokReady]

8 hours ago, Patong2021 said:

23 hours ago, BangkokReady said:

 

They don't want to tax the vapes.  This is about stopping people from vaping because that would lead to less cigarettes being purchased.

 

Nope. See above.

 

No idea what point you are making in response to me.  Please make your points more clear.

[ikke1959]

7 hours ago, JoePai said:

Please stop being sensible - some forum members can't accept  🤣

I don't care it is not my country..... not my future,.... not my problem ..... Thai people are masters in self destruction

[impulse]

On 5/3/2025 at 10:29 AM, BangkokReady said:

I don't think that would help the tobacco manufacturers much.

 

Simple solution would be to only sell the vaping tax stamps to the usual suspects, then arrest anyone who sells vapes with no tax stamp.   

 

Double bonus...  They'd reduce the number of dodgy vaping products where nobody really knows what they're puffing on.

 

The same monopoly(s) would dominate the vaping industry, just like they do most of the other vices that are taxed to death.  Hopefully, they'd do a better job of QA than what we see now.

 

 

[Will B Good]

 

 

Shop owner in our village has just been prosecuted for breaking open packs of two hundred to sell packets of 20 individually.

 

All I can think is that restricting sales to packs of 200 is a cockamamy Thai attempt to put the price of cigarettes beyond on the means of kids???

[BangkokReady]

9 minutes ago, impulse said:

Simple solution would be to only sell the vaping tax stamps to the usual suspects, then arrest anyone who sells vapes with no tax stamp.   

 

Double bonus...  They'd reduce the number of dodgy vaping products where nobody really knows what they're puffing on.

 

The same monopoly(s) would dominate the vaping industry, just like they do most of the other vices that are taxed to death.  Hopefully, they'd do a better job of QA than what we see now.

 

Yeah, I feel like the vapes are easier to sell illegally.  Not exactly sure why.

[impulse]

1 minute ago, BangkokReady said:

Yeah, I feel like the vapes are easier to sell illegally.  Not exactly sure why.

 

They are.  You'll never eliminate the illegal ones.  Just reduce them.  And hopefully improve the QA.

 

[Patong2021]

14 hours ago, BangkokReady said:

 

No idea what point you are making in response to me.  Please make your points more clear.

 

The response I provided is in respect to your multiple  incorrect assumptions.  I quote one of your  incorrect assumptions 

They don't want to tax the vapes.  This is about stopping people from vaping because that would lead to less cigarettes being purchased. My response was to read the  explanations I provided in the same response.  All of your  assumptions are  not reasonable.

On 5/2/2025 at 10:54 PM, BangkokReady said:

 

I don't think anyone cares about that.  It's more about money.  Hence they don't want anyone vaping.

 

On 5/2/2025 at 11:20 PM, BangkokReady said:

 

They don't want to tax the vapes.  This is about stopping people from vaping because that would lead to less cigarettes being purchased.

 

On 5/3/2025 at 12:21 AM, BangkokReady said:

 

They simply don't want vapes being sold.  They want people to buy cigarettes.  The state owns the biggest tobacco producing company.  The state controls who can sell tobacco products.  The state doesn't want people vaping because that means less money for the state from cigarette sales.

 

 

 Your assumptions ignore the impact that  tobacco smuggling has had on tobacco tax collection.

As of mid-2021, about 30% of the country’s cigarette market was made up of illicit products, according to data obtained from the Thai excise department. The Thai Tobacco Trade Association stated that from July to September 2022, illicit trade through online channels increased by 97%. This highlights the challenge of halting the flow of unauthorized products into the market.

 

Your second assumption is that the  restrictions on vaping are not motivated by health reasons. Vaping is dangerous and  causes lung damage. Whether or not it  causes less damage than tobacco is irrelevant, the fact is that it does cause  serious irreversible physiological damage. The vape chemicals sold in Thailand are of unknown composition. Do you know what is in the vape liquids sold in Thailand? 

 

Thailand  is trying to avoid the mistakes it has made with tobacco and its reliance on the product as an agricultural product staple. Vape products would be next to impossible to control in Thailand. Anyone could put out the liquids, poisoning  thousands of people who do not appreciate, nor understand the risks of such unregulated, unsupervised products.

 

[GanDoonToonPet]

1 hour ago, Patong2021 said:

Your second assumption is that the  restrictions on vaping are not motivated by health reasons. Vaping is dangerous and  causes lung damage. Whether or not it  causes less damage than tobacco is irrelevant, the fact is that it does cause  serious irreversible physiological damage. The vape chemicals sold in Thailand are of unknown composition. Do you know what is in the vape liquids sold in Thailand? 

 

Ridiculous, uninformed rant!

 

The vapes sold in Thailand are the same ones that are sold in western countries. Their production is heavily regulated. The ingredients are well known and are regularly tested for by independent government agencies.

 

The ingredients are VG, PG, water, nicotine (optional) and industry standard food-grade flavourings and colourings.

 

As to the 'lung damage', the only evidence for this is from black market cannabis vapes which used non-water soluble vitamin E acetate as the base. Both VG and PG are water soluble and were not found in the lungs during the autopsies of the 50 EVALI patients but high levels of vitamin E acetate and THC were.

 

What next? Ban all alcohol because of the recent methanol poisonings in Laos? Ban seafood because someone got food poisoning from dodgy prawns bought at the market?

 

Pearl-clutching to the max 🤔