Farangs Hit with Luxery tax on Internet

[keedar]

Tell me it's not true~

 

New Luxury tax on internet usage in Thailand

 

All internet accounts to be taxed with 970 Baht/month.

Hardware dongle required for internet use

 

BANGKOK: -- The government has announced heavy investment to upgrade

Thailand's international bandwidth, but has introduced an internet tax

to help fund investment, and control usage.

 

The internet tax will be based on bandwidth and would be applied on a

graduated scale according to the speed of a users internet connection.

The internet luxury tax will be 970 Baht/month for most users.

 

Foreigners without a work permit and retirees will be required to pay

the monthly tax at a higher rate, 1,490 Baht/month.

 

Sombat Merou-Ruang, director of the Alien Internet Control Division at

CAT headquarters in Bangkok says "foreigners that do not have work in

Thailand only hang out on internet forums, visit pornographic sites and

other website lamock, different from Thai citizens who mostly use the

internet for banking, ecommerce, and furthering their education".

 

In addition to the bandwidth tax, an extra usage tax of 490 Baht will

be

levied on those using Bittorrents and surfing foreign language internet

forums.

 

New hardware required

 

The new internet tax will require all internet users in Thailand to

install a hardware dongle from CAT. The dongles can be picked up free

of

charge from any 7-Eleven outlets in Thailand starting today. Without

the

dongle, users will be disconnected after 6 minutes of use and unable to

access the internet from 23.30pm tonight.

 

Reduced 8%

 

180 x 216 (8.93k)

 

A dongle is a small hardware device that connects to a computer

serial port, to administrate the software who controls the user.

When the tax dongle is not present, the software runs in a restricted

mode or refuses to run. Windows XP and Windows Vista operating

systems are likely to hang without the tax dongle installed.

 

"This is a disaster" says Jarunsek Khlongtoy, owner of the Sanuk

Internet Cafe at Khao San Road in Bangkok. "We need to raise our minute

fees up by 300% from today, and set aside special computers for those

wishing to use internet forums."

 

Malee Thorlee, manager of the Excite Internet shop on Sukhumvit says

that she will now have to limit foreigners using the internet in the

shop to one at a time, to keep costs down.

 

The head of CS-Loxinfo Department of Internet, Dr. Boonlert Chaamaak

says this is a blow to internet users in Thailand, who already enjoy

fast internet speeds and almost no down time.

 

DTAC has announced a new range of GPRS packages for foreigners,

starting

with 100hrs for 2,000 Baht, to combat the new internet tax. Other

operators are likely to announce new GPRS charges soon.

 

Internet satellite to me moved

 

Shinsat PLC welcomes the tax, and has pledged to use the extra funds

allocated to them to improve satellite internet communications. Dr.

Rinrada Maimeepompem, head of IPstar Internet Speeds Division, has

announced plans to move the IPstar satellite closer to earth from next

month, which should improve speeds greatly due to less distance for the

signal to travel. The new owners Temasek will also use this opportunity

to move the satellite nearer to Singapore, as it is now theirs.

 

TOT sources have said that executives are overjoyed at the prospect of

government investment, adding that now they would be able to buy a new

fleet of vans for their technicians, which is important if they wish to

improve internet speeds and quality.

 

"This is typical for the CAT monopoly", says Dr. Pat Pong,

administrator

at Thaivisa.com, the leading portal for expats in Thailand. "We

strongly

believe this is just the government wanting to keep track of the

internet usage". He continues: "Thaivisa.com will launch its own

nationwide ISP shortly, trying to bypass the new internet tax with a

new

speed concept. We will provide speeds of 300 and 1200/75 baud, which is

not taxable", says Dr. Pong to Reuters.

 

Foreigners applying to the Internet tax need to provide a valid

passport

with Non-Immigrant Visa, health certificate and 6 colour photos 4x2 cm,

plus a verified copy of their house registration (Tabien Baan) or lease

agreement.

 

CAT will close all unregistered internet accounts before midnight

today.

 

 

-- Thaivisa.com/Agencies 2007-04-01

 

[WorldFun]

WTF?

I though it couldn't get any worse internet wise

[Adams167]

And the date today is .......

 

Paul

[kojis]

Hhmm... had to have a second look to the source to notice the date...bad day over here anyway...

[BKKanalist]

Isn't April Fools day great!

[elef]

Next tax is on sex -

 

ST 500 for the first 4 hours

LT 1000

 

The old machines from airports will be placed around the nightlife scenes, if you're found walking with a thai lady without a ticket the penalty will be 30 days in prison in a cell with 30 katoyes.

[waerth]

great great post

[waerth]

I just went to 7/11 and it seems the dongles are available in different models and different colours. As a male, you get the male model. As a female the female model. If you are sharing your computer with a girl you have to insert the male model into the female one for optimal usage!

 

I got a red male dongle as they had ran out of the dongles of other colours So I will open up a new website: www.dongleexchange.com later this week, so people can exchange their dongles. I am looking for the purple one with gold leaves. Anybody want to trade their dongle with me?

 

Waerth

[Dumsoda]

No far can way....LOL....

Anyone that can devour 2 B_D burgers has got no chance of plugging their "Dongle" into mine 5555.... No matter what colour it is.

 

[Boring_Man]

Now that's good stuff! Well done! Love the names in the "article" and the "Alien Internet Control Division" is an outstanding addition to the Hall of Phony Names.

 

Bravo!