BANGKOK: New Zealand wine exports to Thailand may be hit by an increase in alcoholic beverage prices that are expected to rise once new measures for calculating excise taxes take effect.

In August, Thailand’s Cabinet approved draft amendments of four acts - the Liquor Act, Excise Tax Act, Excise Tariff Act, and Tobacco Act - under which ex-factory prices will be clarified to make calculating taxes easier.

The prices announced by excise authorities will be based on costs or deductions from previous wholesale prices, or deductions from retail prices on production in normal markets.

Other methods could be used to assess products imported for use in free-tax zones or export areas but found to have been used for other purposes than exports.

Tax rates for alcoholic beverages are based on an ad valorem or specific rate whichever is higher.

The ad valorem tax for fermented liquor will increase from 60 percent to 90 percent (of the value of the product), with tax for distilled liquor such as white spirits and blended liquor to increase from 50 percent to 90 percent.

The draft Act has raised the maximum for tariff rates but not the current tariff rates for alcoholic beverages and cigarettes, providing a door for increases in the future.

The next step is to have the Act debated and approved by Parliament then announced in the Royal Gazette.

For further information, contact Chortip Pramoolpol, business development manager, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE), Bangkok.

Contact NZTE’s Bangkok office.