Thai Government Taxes High-End Alcohol

[chelseafan]

The Thai Government has slapped a massive 66% increase on high-end alcohol..Whiskey is included. This means that the current alcohol tax of 240bt/L has risen to 400bt/L.

 

Don't think there's gonna be many Thais happy about this.

[ALHOLK]

I sincerely hope that that they don't regard Sang Som as high end alcohol.

[Flashermac]

Using Thai logic, it probably has something to do with the high price of oil.

[Mentors]

Flashermac said:

Using Thai logic, it probably has something to do with the high price of oil.

 

 

Correct!

[rickfarang]

Probably more to do with curbing violence within the country than the rising price of oil, though that seems to be the excuse for raising the price of everything else these days.

 

I wouldn't mind paying 30 baht per 35 ml bottle more for whiskey, if it really meant that fewer young men were racing up and down the street high on booze, beating each other up, or playing out "stage coach robberies" on public busses.

 

Unfortunately, alcohol and drugs are probably not the actual problem but merely tools for coping with problems in their lives, like grief, poor prospects for a fulfilling future, or an overly repressive society.

 

Beyond that, some people simply feel they live better lives when self medicated, whether with Proazc, Valium, alcohol, tobacco, tea, dope, or ya-bah.

 

The real challenge is to identify the real roots of the problem and make corrections there, but that takes a lot of money, diligent effort, and time. An area that seems to be receiving some attention, but may not produce results that are visible on a national scale for a very long time. At least when taking action against a visible aspect of the problem (alcohol in this case), some public fanfare is generated that gives the impression of serious effort.

 

IMVHO