Floating in the sea - swanky new Bangkok buses bobbing up and down on a ship as scandal deepens

[ExpatOilWorker]

On 12/9/2016 at 10:37 AM, spidermike007 said:

My guess is, that if Thailand were adhering to the rules of law, put forth in the past couple of ASEAN charters, there would be no tax due, whatsoever. It is Thailand's continued and adamant refusal to adhere to these agreements it signs, that may be at the root of these kinds of problems. The days of Thailand being the biggest tiger in the room are over. Yet, they do not understand this. They are still behaving as if they hold all of the cards, when that is so far from the truth. The world is changing, and they cannot see it. They are getting left behind, and they continue to behave like undeveloped children. 

 

How does an undeveloped child look like?

Is that a child that is not yet born?

[ratcatcher]

17 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

 

How does an undeveloped child look like?

Is that a child that is not yet born?

Well, he could have gone the oxymoron route and said "immature children".   

[ExpatOilWorker]

47 minutes ago, ratcatcher said:

Well, he could have gone the oxymoron route and said "immature children".   

 

Or maybe more correctly underdeveloped children.

[lostinisaan]

On 12/8/2016 at 2:14 PM, elgordo38 said:

Do you mean that the entry fee for the buses has been slow in forthcoming?? It sure looks like a super payday in the making. 

 

 

 They can store the buses with the Tablet PC's now. Just found a few cartons with tablets at my school.

 

     Not even opened, will the buses really make it on Bangkok's road? 

[lostinisaan]

On 12/9/2016 at 5:31 AM, jacko45k said:

Send the army in to go get the buses, they seem to be the only people who can sort things out  around here.

 

 

 

 And their boss will drive the first bus through the capital city....

[lostinisaan]

5 hours ago, ratcatcher said:

"My guess is, that if Thailand were adhering to the rules of law, put forth in the past couple of ASEAN charters, there would be no tax due, whatsoever. "

If I understand this correctly, if the buses had been made in Malaysia, then no tax would be due  but since they were manufactured in China then they are dutiable. Is that about right? Then the customs dep't has a case.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exactly, no tax when produced in an ASEAN member country.

 

       But they're all made in China, then brought to Malaysia, somebody maybe threw a Malaysian screw in and off to Thailand. One by one. 

[soalbundy]

1 minute ago, lostinisaan said:

 

 They can store the buses with the Tablet PC's now. Just found a few cartons with tablets at my school.

 

     Not even opened, will the buses really make it on Bangkok's road? 

It is a wonder the box is still there, it should have been sold by now,Christmas is just around the corner

[soalbundy]

1 minute ago, lostinisaan said:

 

Exactly, no tax when produced in an ASEAN member country.

 

       But they're all made in China, then brought to Malaysia, somebody maybe threw a Malaysian screw in and off to Thailand. One by one. 

It is called CKD in the trade, 'completely knocked down' it seems however that in this case there was some confusion about the word completely.

[NanLaew]

On 12/8/2016 at 5:07 PM, cyberfarang said:

Describing all male Thais as Somchai is a racist term that I am seeing way too often on TV.

 

It's being bandied about by any Tom, Dick and Harry these days.

[ratcatcher]

On 08/12/2016 at 5:07 PM, cyberfarang said:

Describing all male Thais as Somchai is a racist term that I am seeing way too often on TV.

Anyone using that term makes a right Charlie of themselves. Or is Charlie a racist term?............oops.

 

I forgot to add that the Thais' use of the word 'farang', which upsets many westerners, is more of a racist comment since it includes the entire Caucasian race, something which your average Somchai fails to grasp.

Edited December 10, 2016 by ratcatcher

[soalbundy]

7 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

 

It's being bandied about by any Tom, Dick and Harry these days.

You have to admit that cyberfarang is enthusiastic though, he got his new gold plated PC card for Christmas and he cant wait to show it off, i bet he doesn't dare cough for fear of offending someone. Hey Cyberfarang what's with all the name calling farang ? surely that's racist check up at your headquarters

Edited December 10, 2016 by soalbundy

[lostinisaan]

4 hours ago, soalbundy said:

It is called CKD in the trade, 'completely knocked down' it seems however that in this case there was some confusion about the word completely.

 

 

 

 It seems that the words China and Malaysia were mistakenly changed by somebody with a low education. Maybe a guy from Myanmar, they're always good to blame when something runs bad. 

 

  And soon the big headline: "Myanmar worker faked ship documents" which almost blamed Thailand's good reputation. Thais don't do such things. They all pay their taxes and taxis. 

Edited December 10, 2016 by lostinisaan

[lostinisaan]

4 hours ago, ratcatcher said:

Anyone using that term makes a right Charlie of themselves. Or is Charlie a racist term?............oops.

 

I forgot to add that the Thais' use of the word 'farang', which upsets many westerners, is more of a racist comment since it includes the entire Caucasian race, something which your average Somchai fails to grasp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    But you've got to see the innocent side of it. When we started our EP program in a little town, the grade one kids called me: 

 

" Khun Kruu Farang."for a few weeks. It seems that they feed their kids with too many F a r a n g.s... 

Or maybe too many B a k s i d a s? Who knows?

 

     But I have to agree with your last sentence ( as well)

 

The average Somchai fails to grasp it and calls us farang, instead of Khun (Kru) Dangdschad. ( word for foreigner)

 

If the "big ones don't get it, how should the little ones know it?

 

The root Somchai seems to be the biggest problem in a land with too many Somchais, Nois, Leks, and Porns. 

Edited December 10, 2016 by lostinisaan

[geriatrickid]

Hmm so if I understand correctly; BMTA is a para public agency supported by the public tax dollars. Duty to be paid is invariably the responsibility of the purchaser, so if duty is owed the BMTA a  para public agency must pay.  The agency collecting the tax, is a government agency that would remit the duty to the government. This is the same government that would subsidize the purchase of the buses.

Ok. So take baht from left pocket and put  baht in right pocket.

Brilliant.

[Damrongsak]

17 minutes ago, lostinisaan said:

 

 It seems that the words China and Malaysia were mistakenly changed by somebody with a low education. Maybe a guy from Myanmar, they're always good to blame when something runs bad. 

 

  And soon the big headline: "Myanmar worker faked ship documents" which almost blamed Thailand's good reputation. Thais don't do such things. They all pay their taxes and taxis. 

Chalaysia, Malina, easy to confuse.  The only Burmabus I ever rode on was built around 1948 - definitely different.

[Damrongsak]

1 minute ago, geriatrickid said:

... Ok. So take baht from left pocket and put  baht in right pocket.

Brilliant.

And the pockets always have a few holes where some change falls through.  Brilliant, indeed.

[optad]

On 12/8/2016 at 4:57 PM, Bobobirdiebuddy said:

When it comes to any big purchase like this, the bureaucrats just can't help themselves - apparently graft and corruption is just in their nature or so it seems..  

Whether or not this is the problem in this example,  the perception of the above are unavoidable in Thailand. It is probably true generally, certainly in Asia it's worse but greasing palms in Thailand is a cultural axiom.  It really impoverishes their own future and badly hampers notions of democratizing opportunity.

[Loeilad]

Surely this is a signal that Thailand (and ASEAN) need to reduced their protective tariffs and allow the free movement of goods....and people?

Edited December 11, 2016 by Loeilad

[spidermike007]

Posted 18 hours ago · Report post

On 12/8/2016 at 7:58 PM, mrjohn said:

“Thailand is a democratic country and adheres to free trade.”

The Great Leader 3rd June 2016

I was so shocked when I heard this nonsense by “the self-appointed one”  on Thai TV  that I checked my dictionary  in case I had misunderstood the meaning of the phrase “free trade”

I had not!

Free trade is : “international buying and selling of goods, without limits on the amount of goods that one country can sell to another, and without special taxes on the goods bought from a foreign country.”

Which part of the words"free trade" do Thais not understand?

 

Free

 

Just another example of how completely out of touch this so called leader is. Does he not understand the meaning of either free trade, or democracy?

 

There is little free trade here. The duty on imported wine is over 400%. The duty on beer imported from other ASEAN nations is high, even though Thailand agreed to forfeit all duty, on all alcoholic beverages, from every member of ASEAN, when it signed the latest charter. So, why don't we see the supermarkets loaded up with Bintang, and other beers from our neighbors? One can only guess the answer to that one. It is called a near monopoly in most nations. 

 

As to democracy, how can one even address such bombastic nonsense, from this guy? 

[elgordo38]

14 hours ago, lostinisaan said:

 

 They can store the buses with the Tablet PC's now. Just found a few cartons with tablets at my school.

 

     Not even opened, will the buses really make it on Bangkok's road? 

Wanna buy a cheap door stop? Something really stupid like scrapping them could happen. Cheap housing?

[BAT039]

Are these buses already in service ?

[cyberfarang]

Corruption Vs corruption Vs corruption. And the winner is?

[jaywalker]

On 12/7/2016 at 11:35 PM, JoePai said:

Simple - double park (but leave the handbrakes off)   

But...The brakes failed!

 

What an absolute joke of a customs Department!

 

YOU!. You must to give me money! is all it's about.

[Artisi]

3 hours ago, jaywalker said:

But...The brakes failed!

 

What an absolute joke of a customs Department!

 

YOU!. You must to give me money! is all it's about.

Joke, sure -  but stupidity would be more like it, so stupid there isn't enough words in Roget's Thesaurus to even come close to describe how stupid.