Sin taxes to be used for the development of tourism destinations

[FangFerang]

So the tax is going to bolster the income of the already wealthy resorts, and swell TOT coffers even more --like they do much beyond creative statistics and horn-blowing proclamations that the sky is blue -- again! (insert cheers here)?

Amazing Thailand -- and how's that for populist?

[Nampetch]

"...allocate two percent of the liquor and tobacco taxes amounting to 3,000-4,000 million baht to set up a fund for development of tourism destinations."

No need to tax prostitution since it is the reason many tourist destinations are developed...without any help from government agencies. Besides, it would too taxing (pun intended) for the girls to try and figure out 2% of the bar fines.

I know what 2% is, thank you!

[impulse]

I've got a better idea. Let the investors develop the tourist industry. That's what they do. They don't need any tax money.

Use the sin taxes to clean up after them, and care for the human and environmental wreckage they leave in their wake.

[smedly]

Like I have said before on this forum, they should have been putting a percentage of the huge tourism revenue the past 30 years back into tourism instead of stuffing it into their greedy pockets

[robertthebruce]

"...allocate two percent of the liquor and tobacco taxes amounting to 3,000-4,000 million baht to set up a fund for development of tourism destinations."

No need to tax prostitution since it is the reason many tourist destinations are developed...without any help from government agencies. Besides, it would too taxing (pun intended) for the girls to try and figure out 2% of the bar fines.

What prostitution ? Officially it is illegal and doesn't exist. Places like Pattaya are thriving seaside towns known for family waterfront walks, lovely cafe's and strolls around Nong Nooch Gardens.

Totally agree with you the Santa Barbara of Thailand.... NOT....

[slipperylobster]

Has anyone NOT read Private Dancer ?

wow, you take that as your guide to living in Thailand?.

I read it, but fell short on sympathy for the main character. Just as I often fall short of sympathy on TV.

[slipperylobster]

So, in this story..."Private Dancer", the main character gets unraveled, turns into an alcoholic, forgets his job responsibilities, and ends up dying.....because he was a complete dumbass and fell in love with a hooker, who did not want to give up her work, nor her Thai lover. Is that the same one?

Why did we have to read the whole frigging book...? I thought that was self explanatory.

Edited July 27, 2014 by slipperylobster

[Basil B]

Hats off to the Thai girls. The real backbone of the Thai economy.

Initially I was wondering how they were going to tax sex...

But seems the sins in question are Alcohol and Tobacco.

agreed to allocate two percent of the liquor and tobacco taxes amounting to 3,000-4,000 million baht to set up a fund for development of tourism destinations.

[slipperylobster]

Sex cannot really be assessed for taxes, IMHO.

After all, beer is priced by quantity and quality, sex is kind of hit or miss. Sometimes you luck out and get a good roll in the hay, and sometimes you just get rolled and then run out screaming "Hey!"

[Basil B]

I thought successive govts were against the public smoking and drinking so if all the campaigns work say goodbye to the sin tax.

Thainess - propose using revenue from activities that may be banned.

Or, many would argue, increasing the price of something would discourage the users which would help achieve the goals of those "successive governments". It is silly to think drinking or smoking will be banned.

The effects of alcohol abuse and cigarette smoking are a huge drain on public resources. There should be an large alcohol tax to pay for drunk driving awareness campaigns, alcohol rehab programs, and for a fund for victims of drunk drivers and their families. Cigarettes should be hugely taxed to support lung cancer awareness and be the sole source of funding for lung cancer hospital wards.

People should be able to do what they want, but there is no reason for the rest of us to have to pay for the consequences of others disgusting and suicidal habits.

Distribution of annual societal cost (mid-point values) of alcohol misuse in for 2007 (£ million)

Well that got me thinking...

Do smokers have a lower IQ, seems the answer is YES.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2010/02/23/us-smokers-smarter-idUSTRE61M3UQ20100223

(Reuters Health) - Cigarette smokers have lower IQs than non-smokers, and the more a person smokes, the lower their IQ, a study in over 20,000 Israeli military recruits suggests.

Young men who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day or more had IQ scores 7.5 points lower than non-smokers, Dr. Mark Weiser of Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer and his colleagues found.

Does smoking kill brain cells or higher intelligent mortals have greater will power to resist?

The findings suggest that lower IQ individuals are more likely to choose to smoke, rather than that smoking makes people less intelligent, Weiser and his team conclude.

[impulse]

Hats off to the Thai girls. The real backbone of the Thai economy.

Initially I was wondering how they were going to tax sex...

Hope it's by the inch. I'll get off real cheap that way.

[Crazy chef 1]

They would make a lot more by taxing prostitutes, or would that be too sinfull?

That would work in Holland. Here would be unfair.

1- Here, it would mean admitting that there are Thai prostitutes, which officially they do not exist as all Thai girls are lily white.

2- furthermore. everybody knows that those girls in bars have a solid reason for being there: "My parents are farmers and I am their only hope."

and 3-the father of my child made a runner

[bangrak]

I thought successive govts were against the public smoking and drinking so if all the campaigns work say goodbye to the sin tax.

Thainess - propose using revenue from activities that may be banned.

To 'stay in line' with the (IMO hypocritical) concept, the collected tax money should have been used in the healthcare and/or education sector(s), but by all means not in tourism, but probably it's because I'm a Farang, using logic, and can't understand Thainess...

Also Thais must really be BIG sinners, compared to the Lao f.i., as alcoholic beverages are, a lot, less expensive there than in the LoS, or, maybe, because the Lao are not xenophobes protecting their own low(er) quality products...

Add to it that the locally produced, and heavily consumed, so-called 'white spirits', many of very low, even hazardous, quality, are nearly not taxed, as if the lower income category of the Thai population can go on ruining its health without committing a sin, as long as it's generating massive income for the local poison distillers, go figure, reminds me of the despicable 'American' colonist power distributing bad quality alcohol to the native Indians to ruin their civilization, would there be a master plan of the same kind here, or is it simply just the greed of the 'elites' owning the producing companies, and of the 'officials' protecting them...?

[bangrak]

Wasn't Einstein a heavy smoker? Just saying... Oh, just go on putting everything in little boxes, you'll end up cutting off the parts which don't fit into your boxes' size, instead of making boxes the size of what needs to fit in them, if you see what I mean, writing about the 'logic' of your kind of people...

Do smokers have a lower IQ, seems the answer is YES.

Does smoking kill brain cells or higher intelligent mortals have greater will power to resist?

The findings suggest that lower IQ individuals are more likely to choose to smoke, rather than that smoking makes people less intelligent, Weiser and his team conclude.

[bkkjames]

Think of how they could improve tourism destinations if they went after sugar.... the sweet taste of money...

[bangrak]

Rather pointedly leaving off Samui.

Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

...And all of the Southern East coast down Prachuap! The NCPO is notsome god, but it for sure works in mysterious ways too...

[bangrak]

Hats off to the Thai girls. The real backbone of the Thai economy.

That's not the bone that drives the Thai economy.

Did you find any, Thai, bone in the economy? Should have asked the waitress to replace your plate when you did, as there is no such thing on the LoS menu. There are, a lot, of Chines bones (calling themselves 'Thai'), Japanese bones, some American, British, Italian, a.s.o., but real, true, Thai bones, outside of the consumers and the small hands, what might have made you think that, the pop and mom shop next door?

[elliss]

They would make a lot more by taxing prostitutes, or would that be too sinfull?

That would be hard task , and a stiff penalty .

What with all the tightening up on the Visa regs ,etc.

Eastbourne Rainbow Home, for the elderly is the place 2B .

[bangrak]

They would make a lot more by taxing prostitutes, or would that be too sinfull?

That would work in Holland. Here would be unfair.

1- Here, it would mean admitting that there are Thai prostitutes, which officially they do not exist as all Thai girls are lily white.

2- furthermore. everybody knows that those girls in bars have a solid reason for being there: "My parents are farmers and I am their only hope."

About your point 2-: according to the Thais outside the 'prostitution circuit' I have spoken about it, this is not true, and just the (money-)catching 'image' used by those ladies, to make their 'position' acceptable for 'soft-hearted' (or should I say 'soft-brained') Farangs (and not lose face telling what their motivation is) but not the real reason for them to be at a bar and put their body 'for rent'. Please, check it out. This (Thai civilisation-) problem is too wide and deep to write about it here in a few lines. But, trust me, the link with farmer parents' only hope is BS for gullible tourists.

Edited July 27, 2014 by bangrak

[Whyamiandwhatamidoinghere]

Oh! Win they said "Sin Tax" I thought they got too smart and legalized prostitution and we're going to charge the girls that play tic-tac-toe in the Nana Plaza. I was thinking that F@&$ the price of pussy will be expensive. Maybe soon Thailand will be called Little Singapore.

[TDCNINJA]

Some guys like to feel important, but the truth is Farangs tourists (sex tourists) are not important to the Thai economy. Thai to Thai prostitution has a cash value of arount ten times that of Farang to Thai prostitution. Really us farangs are a sticky bunch. Also, all the beautiful and high class hookers only work in the Thai to Thai market. Us farangs we get the left over scraps. If you really want to see beautiful high class girls by the bucket load, visit some of the Big Thai clubs in Bangkok. If your credit card allows entry. The Farang sex industry , generates around .0001% of Thai tourism spending. But this is not counting all the lovely new houses some stupid farangs build for their faithful (when farang is away) lovely hooker girlfriends. But love is blind.

Has anyone NOT read Private Dancer ?

And, I think there is nothing wrong with falling in love with a Thai hooker, as long as you know the score and you are willing to accept that she will Never change. You can take the girl out of the bar, but you can NEVER take the bar out of the girl... Try a role reversal.... can you imagine a bald, fat, smelly Thai bar girl walking down town and thinking SHE is sexy..... but you do..! Haha... Great weekend to one and all of us...

Tourism in Thailand makes up about 6% of the economy. Prostitution in Thailand and sex tourism also form a de facto part of the economy. Cultural milieu combined with poverty and the lure of money have caused prostitution and sex tourism in particular to flourish in Thailand. One estimate published in 2003 placed [the trade at US$4.3 billion per year or about 3% of the Thai economy.[1] According to research by Chulalongkorn University on the Thai illegal economy, prostitution in Thailand in the period between 1993 and 1995, made up around 2.7% of the GDP.[2] It is believed that at least 10% of tourist dollars are spent on the sex trade.[3]

1. Thailand mulls legal prostitution, The Age, 26 November 2003

2 Pasuk Phongpaichit, Thailand's illegal economy and public policy, Seminar paper delivered at the Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, November 1999

3. Paradise revealed,Taipei Times. 25 January 2006

[DrDweeb]

Some guys like to feel important, but the truth is Farangs tourists (sex tourists) are not important to the Thai economy. Thai to Thai prostitution has a cash value of arount ten times that of Farang to Thai prostitution. Really us farangs are a sticky bunch. Also, all the beautiful and high class hookers only work in the Thai to Thai market. Us farangs we get the left over scraps. If you really want to see beautiful high class girls by the bucket load, visit some of the Big Thai clubs in Bangkok. If your credit card allows entry. The Farang sex industry , generates around .0001% of Thai tourism spending. But this is not counting all the lovely new houses some stupid farangs build for their faithful (when farang is away) lovely hooker girlfriends. But love is blind.

Has anyone NOT read Private Dancer ?

And, I think there is nothing wrong with falling in love with a Thai hooker, as long as you know the score and you are willing to accept that she will Never change. You can take the girl out of the bar, but you can NEVER take the bar out of the girl... Try a role reversal.... can you imagine a bald, fat, smelly Thai bar girl walking down town and thinking SHE is sexy..... but you do..! Haha... Great weekend to one and all of us...

Tourism in Thailand makes up about 6% of the economy. Prostitution in Thailand and sex tourism also form a de facto part of the economy. Cultural milieu combined with poverty and the lure of money have caused prostitution and sex tourism in particular to flourish in Thailand. One estimate published in 2003 placed [the trade at US$4.3 billion per year or about 3% of the Thai economy.[1] According to research by Chulalongkorn University on the Thai illegal economy, prostitution in Thailand in the period between 1993 and 1995, made up around 2.7% of the GDP.[2] It is believed that at least 10% of tourist dollars are spent on the sex trade.[3]

1. Thailand mulls legal prostitution, The Age, 26 November 2003

2 Pasuk Phongpaichit, Thailand's illegal economy and public policy, Seminar paper delivered at the Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, November 1999

3. Paradise revealed,Taipei Times. 25 January 2006

Aha, the "all sex is bad" brigade, the self appointed ministers of non-fun. One link is research, the other two jounalist fluff.

Those links are also 10-15 years old. and I look forward to links to more recent research not published by tawdry news media or those financed by ideological orgnisations to reach outrageous estimates to help further their own dubious causes.

[TDCNINJA]

While I agree that one of the sources is old, I am not a person who thinks sex is bad.

Whether married or not. Whether you have a GF or not, it's never for free. We all pay for it one way or the other.

I believe that sex is one of the most beautiful, natural, wholesome things that money can buy. - Steve Martin

Edited July 27, 2014 by TDCNINJA

[surangw]

how will they tax all the cash that changes hands ?

[DrDweeb]

how will they tax all the cash that changes hands ?

I have no idea who bought sex into the discussion, it is not mentioned in the original article. Tobacco & alcohol are government regulated and already heavily taxed and most of the product changes hands where it is taxed. The main point is channelling some of the collected funds to tourism.

[Jim walker]

Sin Tax the sexpats or all single males when they arrive at the airport that would boost the coffers 2 or three thousand Baht when the go through immigration use our whores pay then pay our tax.

[Whyamiandwhatamidoinghere]

Have you read Private Dancer? No... And don't plan to. Seems like the same people always suggesting read this read that... They must be supplementing their retirement income by promoting books. Don't need to read anyone's bias ideology about Thailand. I rather experience it myself. And I have never bought a book about some guy's mistakes with a bargirl. Servers them right for not listening to their father's advice "NEVER MAKE A HO A HOUSEWIFE" Adhering to that advice would save you time, money, heartbreak, and maybe even your life. Instead, learn some Thai, do your homework and get a girl that hasn't cross the morality line and maybe you might have half a chance of it working. Women here come with added baggage (FAMILY) Not an easy bag to unpack. But a real man will figure it out.

[ggt]

If they taxed Thai puzzy...the Gov't would not be in debt for very long...

[meatboy]

So are they going to extend walking street with the money generated from this tax thus generating more revenue?

what next are they going to put vit on twit.

oh my spelling,i cant seem to find the sell check.

[BSJ]

I can see the link to the sex trade a la "sin tax" in a humorous light.....but that is just me....isn't it? Well I live in Pattaya 40% of the time!

The government collect a huge sum of money from alcohol alone, probably enough to fully rebuild one tourist spot every year. But why not tax the businesses in the tourist spots 2% for rebuilding and use the sin tax to improve hospital services....which really need improving!

Ps: I know how bad public hospitals are as the wife's mum has been sick for a few months and we take her to hospital regularly.

Edited July 28, 2014 by BSJ