Tea Money

[damo]

Whats the deal with Tea money, I know what it is but how broad is its extent within the Thai/Farang business environment? Obviously Lotus aren't paying it. Is it more your street level retail, service type enterprise or does it extend to M.L.Enterprise as well?

Damos

[sbk]

Moving to general business forum since this seems to be more a discussion than anything else

[keestha]

Quoting the OP "Tea money, I know what it is but how broad is its extent within the Thai/Farang business environment? Obviously Lotus aren't paying it. Is it more your street level retail, service type enterprise or does it extend to M.L.Enterprise as well?

Obviously why, can you clarify? Wouldn't surprise me in the least if Lotus also has to grease the wheels a bit in order to get for instance a building permit.

[samran]

My experience is that generally people who pay tea money are people who haven't got all the required permits and licenses and are happy to pay off the cops a little to turn a blind eye.

Having said that, if you have all your ducks lined up in a row, and do things by the book, there is little people can do to extort things out of you.

[Naam]

if you have all your ducks lined up in a row, and do things by the book, there is little...

...fun left because of the potential wasted time. good Christians act -when in a foreign country or their own- according to the Bible and follow the commandment

"Thou shalt not muzzle the buffalo/bullock <replace with appropriate animal> when he treadeth out your grain!"

[clinique]

My experience is that generally people who pay tea money are people who haven't got all the required permits and licenses and are happy to pay off the cops a little to turn a blind eye.

Having said that, if you have all your ducks lined up in a row, and do things by the book, there is little people can do to extort things out of you.

Tea money is not only money paid to 'cops'.

And as for "having all your ducks lined up in a row" - to achieve that in itself it is often easier and less time wasting to pay the tea money.

Have seen and heard o f many cases of refusal to meet tea money and thigs just well "get bogged down indefinately'.

[mstribling]

My experience is that generally people who pay tea money are people who haven't got all the required permits and licenses and are happy to pay off the cops a little to turn a blind eye.

Having said that, if you have all your ducks lined up in a row, and do things by the book, there is little people can do to extort things out of you.

Tea money is not only money paid to 'cops'.

And as for "having all your ducks lined up in a row" - to achieve that in itself it is often easier and less time wasting to pay the tea money.

Have seen and heard o f many cases of refusal to meet tea money and thigs just well "get bogged down indefinately'.

Very true.

[samran]

My experience is that generally people who pay tea money are people who haven't got all the required permits and licenses and are happy to pay off the cops a little to turn a blind eye.

Having said that, if you have all your ducks lined up in a row, and do things by the book, there is little people can do to extort things out of you.

Tea money is not only money paid to 'cops'.

And as for "having all your ducks lined up in a row" - to achieve that in itself it is often easier and less time wasting to pay the tea money.

Have seen and heard o f many cases of refusal to meet tea money and things just well "get bogged down indefinately'.

Depends on where you are located I guess. No one I know runs a beer bar.

I run my own Thai business and have numerous friends/family with businesses with shopfronts. When asked none of them pay anything. But then again, they are successful professionally run businesses, so what would they know?

My dealings with the bureaucracy - which are numerous - have been nothing if above board, though sometimes a little byzantine. As I said, ducks lined up in a row tends to help.

I sometimes wonder if people take the tea money short cut when simply being friendly and prepared to build a relationship with authorities is a simple and often more useful substitute.

For me there is always a greater (ultimate cost) in taking shortcuts, whatever their nature.

Some people have their golden rule in Thailand as 'don't invest more than you are prepared to walk away from'. It is good advice as far as it goes, but my golden rule is "If you wouldn't do it back home, don't do it here". Seems to have served me very well.

Edited February 15, 2011 by samran

[Naam]

paying tea money or not is based on individual and often very different perspectives and last not least it's a matter of convenience and of course depth of pocket. unfortunately Thailand has not evolved as did advanced tea money states such as Nigeria and a bunch of others where i lived and worked.

for me it was very inconvenient to cross my property line, drive to and queue up at the department which issues drivers licenses, submit a bunch of papers, wait for a couple of hours till my number was called, being checked whether i was colour blind and press a pedal when a red light lit up and waiting again bored to death till the Thai license was issued.

much more convenient was pressing a button, tell somebody "here are photos of my wife, my son and myself. get us driver's licenses. how much? hmmm... ok! how long? this afternoon? ok!"

:jap: