Three more months needed for probe into 7,000-plus illegal luxury cars

  

BANGKOK, 4 August 2016 (NNT) - Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya said it will take three more months for the authorities to finish probe into 7,000-plus allegedly illegal luxury cars. 

The minister convened government officials in bid to speed up the verification of a total of 7,123 luxury cars which might have been locally reassembled to avoid high import duty. 

The meeting was attended by representatives from the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), Central Institute of Forensic Science, Thai Industrial Standards Institute as well as those from the Excise, Customs, Revenue and Land Transport departments. 

The Land Transport Department will confirm whether any of the cars in question may have matched those earlier registered and will check the engines and serial numbers of the auto parts with data from the manufacturers in the country of origin. Such process could take three more months from now, he added. 

He said that the owners and importers of the illegal luxury cars would be prosecuted on tax-evading and criminal charges. He said the process will be carried out in transparent fashion so that nobody might suspect any underhanded practice.

 

-- nnt 2016-08-04

If things were so "transparent" then why are they not releasing findings already obtained?  Surely, all the findings will not be completed simultaneously at the end of three months!  Why wouldn't there be a willingness to expose findings as they become known?  Perhaps the hope is that in three months everyone will have forgotten about the "transparent" investigation and this issue will quietly go away so that nobody will suspect any underhanded practice (or shall we say, under-the-table practice).

40 minutes ago, Smiley Face said:

 Perhaps the hope is that in three months everyone will have forgotten about the "transparent" investigation and this issue will quietly go away

 

You answered your own question.

More time needed to get all the ducks in a row,  the paperwork in order and all the fake reasoning and excuses ready.

If the PM is serious about fighting corruption,  fat chance,  this is the sort of thing he should be all over instead of the weak  '  not interfering and leaving it to the relevant agencies  '.

3 months more needed for all the hi-so folk to get their bu....t sorted out.

Come all this talk about stopping corruption.

Do it stop ar...ing about, show you mean it.

And not one mention of Customs!

22 minutes ago, ChrisY1 said:

And not one mention of Customs!

"The meeting was attended by representatives from the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), Central Institute of Forensic Science, Thai Industrial Standards Institute as well as those from the Excise, Customs, Revenue and Land Transport departments."

A luxury car that was taken apart and put back together here in Thailand by Thai people

and re sold for  million of baht I will NOT touch with a 40 foot pole, as before long  bits and pieces will start to fall of the car....

42 minutes ago, BigBadGeordie said:

"The meeting was attended by representatives from the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), Central Institute of Forensic Science, Thai Industrial Standards Institute as well as those from the Excise, Customs, Revenue and Land Transport departments."

I stand corrected

In my neighborhood, there is a BMW sport car that has a red plate on it, for over 5 years.

Would it be illegal ?  Best guess.

Only 3 months, hardly time to get all dodgy paperwork sorted and the lunch box order settled and running smoothly. 

3 hours ago, ezzra said:

A luxury car that was taken apart and put back together here in Thailand by Thai people

and re sold for  million of baht I will NOT touch with a 40 foot pole, as before long  bits and pieces will start to fall of the car....

What about all the spares they will have that weren't really needed when built first time

1 hour ago, bark said:

In my neighborhood, there is a BMW sport car that has a red plate on it, for over 5 years.

Would it be illegal ?  Best guess.

 

having red plate does not make a car illegal, perhaps the owner likes to drive with a fake red plate to show off that he just got a "new" car.

...I think I read that this has knowingly been going on for 20 years or more...

 

...so they don't know who the players are.....???

 

....or what....???

 

 

Conclusion: buy your luxury car at full price. I prefer to buy a sport car from an official dealer, even if the price is painful. You never know, one day the authorities might come after you, even many years later. I personally prefer to sleep well at night

I really don't understand this investigation. I think it is a waste of time and money. The only people able to afford luxury cars are the very rich, also meaning influential. They are not going to suffer any penalties under the law in Thailand as they cannot be touched.

And what if government ministers, top army guys, and families with a net worth of over 500 million baht (defined as being above the law) are found to be complicit and involved? Will they be arrested? Will they be convicted? Will any of THEM serve time in prison? Why am I so skeptical? 

Looks like the Buddhist monk membership will suddenly spike by 7,000 by the end of this investigation.

4 hours ago, Jujus said:

Conclusion: buy your luxury car at full price. I prefer to buy a sport car from an official dealer, even if the price is painful. You never know, one day the authorities might come after you, even many years later. I personally prefer to sleep well at night

This is Thailand. Just because you bought it from a dealer does not mean that he obtained it legally. I believe there was a famous actor somewhere at the beginning of this scandal that claimed exactly that. 

10 hours ago, NongKhaiKid said:

More time needed to get all the ducks in a row,  the paperwork in order and all the fake reasoning and excuses ready.

If the PM is serious about fighting corruption,  fat chance,  this is the sort of thing he should be all over instead of the weak  '  not interfering and leaving it to the relevant agencies  '.

 

Luxury cars aren't going to be driven by the poor, unconnected, non elite, average Joe, normal everyday citizens. This will require careful and thorough checking to understand who might be involved.

1 hour ago, volsfan said:

This is Thailand. Just because you bought it from a dealer does not mean that he obtained it legally. I believe there was a famous actor somewhere at the beginning of this scandal that claimed exactly that. 

Maybe, but at least I can prove my good faith as the price I paid, believe me, contains 100% of the due taxes. But thanks for mentioning it, I'll keep that in mind.

And when I said "official dealer", I meant the authorized dealer of this brand. So I am not worried for a second about my purchase and the related taxes

An average person could not pull this off.  So, it will disappear again until it's too late?