Customs Charges for Importing a Dog

[Steiner]

Looked for this and can't find a definitive answer anywhere.

Customs have not been answering the phone all day (must have confiscated a shipment of hammocks).

The shipping agent just directed me to the customs contact number.

I have all of the certs, import, export etc.

All I want is a figure of what customs duty will be.

I know the other fees; 100 B for the import licence, 250 for some other paperwork, 500 for the airline but no one will tell me what the customs duty is and I want a solid figure before I go to the airport.

[gamini]

If you bring your dog with you on the plane as excess baggage you will pay no customs duty. It will come with your baggage and there is a special vet section in the arrival hall. No hassle if you have all the right paper work. They will issue an import permit.If you send by airfreight the poor dog will be sent to the airfright section where you will have to go through all sorts of red tape and pay duty. They work normal office hours and your dog could be stuck there overnight or even over the week end.

[craigt3365]

If you bring your dog with you on the plane as excess baggage you will pay no customs duty. It will come with your baggage and there is a special vet section in the arrival hall. No hassle if you have all the right paper work. They will issue an import permit.If you send by airfreight the poor dog will be sent to the airfright section where you will have to go through all sorts of red tape and pay duty. They work normal office hours and your dog could be stuck there overnight or even over the week end.

We brought our dog in as carry on and still had to pay 1000B to the customs department. We'd already paid the fees at the animal control office near the luggage carousels, but when going through the check point, they saw the dog and pulled us over.

As for shipping a dog, be prepared. I know of several stories where very large fees were paid to get their animals released.

[dighambara]

If you bring your dog with you on the plane as excess baggage you will pay no customs duty. It will come with your baggage and there is a special vet section in the arrival hall. No hassle if you have all the right paper work. They will issue an import permit.If you send by airfreight the poor dog will be sent to the airfright section where you will have to go through all sorts of red tape and pay duty. They work normal office hours and your dog could be stuck there overnight or even over the week end.

We brought our dog in as carry on and still had to pay 1000B to the customs department. We'd already paid the fees at the animal control office near the luggage carousels, but when going through the check point, they saw the dog and pulled us over.

As for shipping a dog, be prepared. I know of several stories where very large fees were paid to get their animals released.

In 2004, I brought my cat back with me. The Thai requirements were extensive; Medical check, plus Thai and US paperwork - total cost over 250 USD. I had a packet of 10 sheets. On arrival, I carried the cat, in a carrier thru customs - no comment. I took the cat to the animal control desk. Everyone there thought he was cute - no one wanted to examine the papers. So I caught a cab.

[Satcommlee]

I have seen a dog in his protective cage go round the luggage carousel with the rest of the passengers bags before at Suvarnabuhmi airport.. That was a weird site!

[MelR]

I think this depends on where you are picking up you dog from extra luggage or whether they were imported via Cargo which does involves heavy tax (Usually cargo is from NZ, AUS and any flights that do not allow them to be carried as extra luggage).

This is what happened when I had to pick up my cats when they traveled Cargo from Australia to BKK.

My Thai husband and I arrived early at the Cargo area to pick up my two cats where a guy was hanging around who obviously knew the system and several procedures that we were about to endure so helped us get through this. There is like a 8 step procedure to get them out. But because you have specified info involving import tax fees I'll skip to that part.

Customs had asked how much my cats were worth (ie purchase price), I had said they are worth $150 (which wasn't true as they were Ragdoll breed but I knew what they were about to do) so they went off with there little calculator came back and said something that was completely ridiculous somewhere between 10,000-15,000baht range - obviously I kicked up a stink and said how do you work that out. They said by value of cat plus the shipping/cargo cost that I had paid in Australia then it equaled that - They also said my cats were worth more than the $150 I had said. This is the fun part. Our little helper said 'how much do you want to pay?' - I said I don't want to pay anything, my husband being Thai had to then push in to 'negotiate a price' to get my little furballs out. We eventually came to an agreed price of around 4000 baht and the helper was to take his cut out of that too. This obviously went in their pocket and not put through the books but I just wanted the proper documents. I think how they work out this 'Custom Fee' is 30% tax (I think it is 30%) on the price you paid for the airline cargo plus the worth of the animal.

But then again nothing is never set in stone in Thailand

Good luck with bringing your dog in and from my experience try not to go via Cargo as it took 4 hours to get mine out and they not even held in an animal room (they were left in the big warehouse with loud machinery operating right next to them, and no air con) which I found to be disgusting treatment for animals brought into the country.

[IanLongbon]

Hi,

we brought two dogs in a couple of years ago and once we have cleared the vet checks, the poor guy had been on duty for 24 hrs and kept falling asleep at this desk!, paid the nominal charges for the vet, we took the two dogs through customs and were charged Thb1,000 per dog.

All very simple.

Hope this helps.

[tuktukmike]

We brought our 3 cats from the UK in 2004 and what a game.

Emirates promised the best of care from Heathrow and delivered nothing, we were assured that the cats would be cleaned out and checked on arrival in dubai.

For this reason we chose a longer stopover in dubai (6 hours) so they could be cleaned out and allowed some time in a pen which is what we were promised, in reality they did nothing and they were left in the transit carrier's.

When we arrived in Bangkok we had to go to the freight warehouse and were shocked to find our cats in a terrible state, the cages had not been cleaned and they were soaking in urine.

Now the customs part, they told us that there was nobody to do the clearence and to come back the next day.

As some can imagine I was not going to leave them there in that condition, I eventually found an agent and to be honest he was very good and seemed as concerned as I was about the conditions the cats were in.

Eventually we managed to find a customs officer to do the clearence but he wanted a pay off.

In the end after nearly losing it many times I paid 1500bht and got them out of that hell hole.

Never again.

Ttm

[Remix4]

When we brought 2 huskies in 7 years ago as excess baggage the only charges we had to pay at this end were 250 THB per dog for the documentation

[comserve]

So now you know. Expect the worst but hope for the best, and have a good Thai negotiator with you.

Have never imported animals, but imported personal effects once. Was acosted by a woman who insisted we use her services, which we did.

Was the best thing we ever did. She knew which hands to grease, which queues to jump (there were queues 12 people long in some places & she just went into the staff doors & jumped the queues. Without her it would have taken days to get through, with her it took about 3 hours.

[impulse]

May want to read the horror stories here before starting your adventure:

From the thread, I gathered that there is no "definitive" answer, just a range and it's from free to XX,000 baht per critter.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/88593-importing-a-pet-into-thailand/page-9?hl=%2Bdog+%2Bsuvarnabhumi#entry4695395

My favorite advice for traveling to Asia:

Just because someone else did it, doesn't mean you can, and just because you did it last year doesn't mean you can do it this year.

Or, simply: Your mileage may vary.

Edited June 14, 2013 by impulse

[Bagwan]

Just imagine the death toll if Thailand had the same quarantine laws as the UK. 6 months under lock and key.

[BB1955]

2010 I brought a dog in from the USA took her as carry on had no issues clearing aggriculture paid 1000 baht to customs and got a receipt . No big deal easy and fast ....

[Incobart]

wow many did good, I brought my 2 dogs in from Belgium, there they had to change with me from bangkok airport to the thai airways flight to phuket.

Bangkok customs. resist I had to pay 40.000 B duty to get them in, (official papers) I had to pay or my dogs stayed in bkk in the cage.

[Steiner]

OK I can now give the 'definitive' answer (sort of)

100% the way to do this is to bring the dogs as excess baggage on your flight, that will cost (as of June 2013 $50 USD per kilo on Thai Airways) that way costs this end are minimal and you can literally collect them from the carousel and walk out.

Unfortunately I couldn't do that because of airlines in the UK refusing to move them as excess baggage from Ireland to mainland UK so they were sent as cargo.

I thought it then made sense to let them go all the way as cargo DOH!

So Thai customs will charge you 30% of the CIF costs, that basically means the largest figure they can find in your paperwork.

I had already contacted the shipper in the UK and asked them to attach only the lowest possible cost of the trip to Thailand and not include IATA boxes etc.

They will also give your dogs a value of $250 each even if you have documentation to show that they are domestic pets with a minimal value of less than £50. That will be ignored and the cost added to the scam.

So flights for flights that cost £998 + their valuation of $250 USD per dog they somehow arrived at a figure after a plethora of taxes and costs at 28,000 Baht.

Some negotiation and a few baht under the table reduced that to 22,000 Baht, total price to get the dogs in hand with the vet fees and to get them to work on the weekend and an agent (2000 Baht but essential) was about 28,000 Baht.

So lesson learnt, BRING YOUR DOGS, NO MATTER HOW BIG, AS EXCESS BAGGAGE AND NOT CARGO!

Edited June 19, 2013 by Steiner

[DesertRose]

Sadly it's only possible to bring your dogs as excess baggage if they fall within the limit in terms of overall weight and size (including crate). I have to bring my dog as cargo as Thai have told me the crate exceeds the maximum size allowed for excess baggage. (The normal reservations office told me that and the cargo people have told me actually it's no longer allowed to have dogs as excess baggage from our airport. I could have turned up at the airport to have her as excess and been told that! I've tried to get the cargo people and the passenger reservations people to talk to each other about this to stop that happening to somebody with a smaller dog but they are not interested.)

Anyway, I'm using Dynamic for the BKK end and they said (I think) that we should expect to pay a minimum of around US$200 tax. It's frustrating because our dog is a cross breed and rescue with zero financial value. Excess baggage is definitely a better idea if possible.

[WilBangkok]

I have just brought my dog in from kenya - we flew KLM via Amsterdam as it meant we could take him as excess baggage, even though he is a labrador and had a pretty big cage - total weight was 37 KG. The initial plan was to go as cargo with kenya airways as it is a direct flight, but they wanted 2200 dollars! Paid in cash! Ridiculous! KLM charged 350 euros.

He spend a day at the animal hotel there - got washed, fed, walked and watered, and seems in pretty good spirits now he's finally here.

I can not recommend KLM highly enough - they knew what they were doing, talked me through the whole process and gave us all the details we needed. I also used Dynamic for the import licence and a load of advice - they were great too, and am sure if you are bringing a dog in as cargo would look after them and also help you get through.

[Jozel]

They also did the same thing to me. Hello! It's already year 2020 and no one has cut the balls of these culprits. 

 

I wish I could have found this thread before I flew my two dogs from Manila to Bangkok. I felt that they took my dogs as hostage and I can't just move on what they are doing to farangs like us. It's not OKAY!!

 

Has anyone tried to report them? How come this was an ongoing scam?? I took their photos and I'm planning to publicize everything!!