Soap and shampoo add to list of products under price control

[webfact]

Soap and shampoo add to list of products under price control



BANGKOK: -- Soap and shampoo will now be subjected to price control as mandated by the cabinet on Tuesday after it was discovered that manufacturers have reduced the sizes of their containers in order to sell the products at controlled prices.

PVC pipes for agricultural use has also been added as another product subjected to price control, according to the cabinet’s decision.

42 products are now subjected to price control as proposed by the Commerce Ministry. They include garlic, paddy and rice, maize, tapioca and tapioca products, egg, pork, sugar, condensed milk, powdered milk, wheat, oil palm seeds, detergent, sanitary napkin, facial tissue paper, fertilizer, pesticides, water pumps, cement, iron rods and, electrical wire.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/soap-shampoo-add-list-products-price-control


-- Thai PBS 2015-01-21

[Diplomatico]

Well, that usually means one can expect shortages of those products or a decline in the quality of those products (or both). See: 1970s USSR, the last 50 years in Cuba.

[smedly]

anyone notice how there was a reduction in the size of soft drinks cans but no reduction in prices, my source tells me that the retail price should have dropped but it didn't.

Package resizing is a common stealthy way to increase prices of products and generally is ignored by consumers, I mention the soft drinks as it was a reduction of almost a third in the size of the can

[SiSePuede419]

Makes sense to me.

When a Khon Jone (penniless person) gets a little money, the things they buy (in order):

1. Soap

2. Food

3. Clothes

[maidee]

facial tissue ...normally sold at 17 baht in those ugly tesco boxes

not it is 91 baht sold in a pack of 3

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Well, for shampoo and soap, given their inclusion now in price controls, I'm assuming that means the prices for those products will now INCREASE.

Because every time the government here promises to reduce the prices on something, it's just the opposite that seems to happen.

[Loles]

Is it the most important problem in TH ???

Who cares this?

Let the market work.

If some-one idiot and buys smaller container in old price up to him, let him to be blind.

OR

aaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA this case gives fake and unavailable work for many lazy government workers...

kaochai, kaochai

[Loles]

facial tissue ...normally sold at 17 baht in those ugly tesco boxes

not it is 91 baht sold in a pack of 3

Dear maidee.

Do open your eyes and try to think.

Those 17 B / box facial tissue is full crap like its "ugly tesco box".

3 boxes / 91 - 115 B a good quality product under brand.

It's up to you what do you want to use, but don't come this case like this:

Those ugly toyota innova 1 M B, but the same size honda crv 1,4 M B.

You may buy cheap tissue in Big C box, 16 B / ugly box.

Many offer for you in same segment of product and you may choose by quality / price rate.

[trainman34014]

Don't see anything about volume in a beer bottle going down as price went up in 2013. Even the items they are talking about have been suffering reduced volumes for a year or more. Officialdom in Thailand is not exactly a coiled spring is it !!

[Bluespunk]

Well, that usually means one can expect shortages of those products or a decline in the quality of those products (or both). See: 1970s USSR, the last 50 years in Cuba.

So you don't think the USA's vindictive blockade of Cuba for the past 50 years has anything to do shortages there?

[cloudhopper]

Well, that usually means one can expect shortages of those products or a decline in the quality of those products (or both). See: 1970s USSR, the last 50 years in Cuba.

LOL see also Nixon's failed attempt in the US. They all happen when the market is being flooded with liquidity - and they all fail.

[Diplomatico]

Well, that usually means one can expect shortages of those products or a decline in the quality of those products (or both). See: 1970s USSR, the last 50 years in Cuba.

So you don't think the USA's vindictive blockade of Cuba for the past 50 years has anything to do shortages there?

The US has a trade embargo not a blockade and, as far as I know, Cuba trades with every other nation on the planet. So, no, I don't think the U.S. trade embargo causes the shortages in Cuba (though I wish it would end myself for purely selfish reasons) unless we're talking about shortages of Big Macs.

[Time Traveller]

Well, that usually means one can expect shortages of those products or a decline in the quality of those products (or both). See: 1970s USSR, the last 50 years in Cuba.

exactly what i was thinking. I remember many years ago the sugar price control in thailand meant sugar was half the price in thailand when compared with prices in cambodia and neighbouring countries, so naturally all the sugar disappeared from the thai supermarket shelves.

[rickirs]

Both China and Venezuela use price controls to stem high inflation. But Thailand is not suffering from high inflation and may in fact suffer from deflation (GDP growth <2%) by the end of 2015. Failing an economic rationale for the Junta's price controls, the only reason is POLITICS. By preventing price increases the Junta keeps its promise of happiness to the people, albeit at the cost of capitalism. And yet one of the major factors to a recovering economy would be private capital investment. This recent instance of price control is just another example of the Junta's propensity to make decisions based on political necessity and not economic practicality.

[SiSePuede419]

"This recent instance of price control is just another example of the Junta's propensity to make decisions based on political necessity and not economic practicality."

Incorrect.

This is being done for health reasons.

Poor people having access to cheap soap means less risk of YOU getting sick. Doh!

More expensive soap prices only benefit the small number of people who own soap factories.

Boo hoo hoo! The 0.01% of Thai people who own soap factories will make slightly less profit.

So, what? YOU can choose to buy more expensive soap, handmade from hemp, neem, coconut oil or whatever. The poor cannot.

Good day, sir.

Edited January 22, 2015 by SiSePuede419