Central urges cut in luxury fashion taxes

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Central urges cut in luxury fashion taxes

Published: 22 Jan 2013 at 00.00
Newspaper section: Business

The Central Group of Companies will step up efforts to convince the government to reduce import taxes on luxury fashion products this year.

It wants to raise Thailand's profile as a shopping destination, which some experts say is on par with many of the world's leading retail venues.

"In terms of food, services, hotels and tourist and sport destinations, Hong Kong and Singapore do not have anything better than our country except for lower prices of fashion products," said Chart Chirathivat, managing director of Central Embassy.

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maidaay
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Discussion 4 : 03 Mar 2013 at 10.294
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continued... - Singapore and Hong Kong are business destinations, not tourism destinations, so of course their hotel values target very different audiences. live and work in BKK & have many friends who travel all over Asia and the world. Nobody I've asked have preferred shopping shopping in Thailand to Singapore. Singapore is organized, easy to move around in, shop keepers speak perfect English and are helpful knowing about the products they sell, and malls are organized properly, escalators properly placed to avoid the constant frustration in Thai malls. Lastly, Singapore and Hong Kong provide a much fuller catalogue of luxury brands.
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maidaay
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Discussion 3 : 03 Mar 2013 at 10.233
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"'In terms of food, services, hotels and tourist and sport destinations, Hong Kong and Singapore do not have anything better than our country except for lower prices of fashion products,' said Chart Chirathivat, managing director of Central Embassy."

Well, partially accurate and partially inaccurate. Thailand is far larger than Hong Kong and Singapore, so, one would expect Thailand to have more space (literally) to offer more to more tourists. Also, comparisons to Singapore and Hong Kong are somewhat strange as these two countries are not developing countries with such a large percentage of their GDP tied up with tourism. continued---
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banmebkk
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Discussion 2 : 26 Jan 2013 at 16.592
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@Disc 1 - Well said, maybe they should tax the local politicians more. But truth be told the Board of Investment in Thailand gives generous tax deductions to investors. Some businesses only pay tax as low as 10%, some fields even have tax waivers for X amount of years. I'm sure that is who Mr. Chart is referring to. One thing for sure is that this country doesn't do anything good with any of the tax money collected. Maybe the less they collect the better.
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rayshul

Discussion 1 : 22 Jan 2013 at 06.381
Chart Chirathivat, managing director of Central Embassy, says the govt should tax their store less and make up for it by taxing Foriegn business men more.
Thanks again for always turning to the foreigner to be milked more. I already pay almost 40% tax here contributing to Thailand greatly. No more Central shopping for me. There are other malls.
from iPhone application.
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Central urges cut in luxury fashion taxes | Bangkok Post: business