Customs impounded 96 tonnes of suspected contraband orange



BANGKOK: -- Customs officials at Laem Chabang deep-sea port have seized 96 tonnes of orange worth about four million baht from Spain and Egypt which were falsely declared of originating from China to evade import taxes.

The citrus fruits were found in seven containers belonging to Nine Enterprise and Trading Limited Partnership and Watchamon Company.

Customs officials said that the fruits were declared to originate from China which will exempt the two importers from paying import taxes under the Free Trade Area agreement between Thailand and China.

However, it was discovered that the seven containers of orange actually come from Spain and Egypt. Customs officials said that the two importers would be charged 30 percent import taxes for the 96 tonnes of orange.

Customs Department chief Kulis Sombatsiri said that officials would look back into the record of previous orange imports by the two firms to find out whether they had cheated in falsifying the origin of the orange they imported into the country.

He also said that the two firms might be blacklisted.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/content/164627


-- Khaosod English 2016-05-25

Maybe they can sell the oranges to the Vietnamese to make some real orange juice.

Does the FTA with China cover clothes, electronics and luxury goods?

Damn, now I can't have my orange juice in the morning for a while then.

Many years ago my ever loving daughter ( ? ) sent me a gift hamper for my birthday but wasn't delivered door to door as it was intercepted by Customs at the airport.

The company agent called to say I had to go to Bkk to sort things out as I had tried to import fruit without a licence ! The problem was the hamper contained a box of Jacob's Club Biscuits which ]were Orange Flavoured but could i get the agent to understand.

I gave up and told them to keep the hamper. Luckily my daughter received a full refund plus a gift voucher for her next purchase from a very understanding, and angry, managing director of the company concerned.

Incidentally i never found out what the Customs mob made of the two tins of Haggis !

And now? what are they doing 96 tonnes of fruit weighing? In order to prove the correct amount of?

Neat, one of Thailand's most crooked and corrupt organisations nabs two other crooked organisations.

Some money will change hands and you will be buying those oranges next time you go to Makro or Tesco-lotus.

All together now

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