‘Travelling tax’ to start with air travel from mid-2025

[reader]

From The Nation

Thailand’s highly controversial “landing fee” has been renamed “travelling tax” and is expected to come into effect around mid-2025, starting with arrivals by air, the Tourism and Sports Ministry has announced.

Minister Sorawong Thienthong said on Wednesday that the new tax will be submitted to the Cabinet for approval within the first quarter of next year. After being approved, it will become effective in six months, or around mid-2025, he said, adding that the tax will be levied on those arriving by air in the first phase.

“Kha Yeap Pan Din” (fee for stepping on Thai soil), also known as a “landing fee”, was approved in principle by the Cabinet in February last year. It aims to levy 300 baht ($8.88) on foreigners arriving by air and 150 baht ($4.44) for those arriving by land or sea.

The minister said the money earned would be used to buy insurance for foreigners and the remainder added to the tourism development fund. The fund will support the improvement of tourist attractions, including the building of facilities for the disabled and toilets for tourists.

Sorawong said the ministry is working on an application to be used to collect the tax, which will be linked to the system of the Krungthai Bank. The current insurance coverage amount will remain the same, which is no more than 60 baht from the 300 baht per person travelling tax.

Insurance payout in case of death is set at 1 million baht, and a maximum of 500,000 baht for injuries. This amount is on top of the insurance that foreign tourists buy themselves. The insurance under the new travel tax will cover a stay in Thailand for no more than 30 days, which is applicable to around 87% of foreign arrivals, he said.

Sorawong added that after the first phase, the Cabinet may consider adjusting the tax for arrivals via land and sea channels to the same rate as for air travellers to avoid accusations of unequal treatment.

He added that the travelling tax will not be levied on cross-border merchants, who will need to show a border pass when crossing to and from neighbouring countries.

https://www.nationthailand.com/news/policy/40042628

[Mavica]

I'm okay with that.

[Keithambrose]

5 hours ago, Mavica said:

I'm okay with that.

The question is how it will be levied, without causing big delays. I can't see that the Government  has worked that out yet.

[reader]

Sounds like it’s going to included in airfare ancillary items.

[Keithambrose]

1 hour ago, reader said:

Sounds like it’s going to included in airfare ancillary items.

I saw that was one of the suggestions, but how will the airline know whether the tax is payable, ie. a tourist, payable, or a Thai national, or other exempt category, not payable.

[reader]

With AI, I’d imagine a smart programmer could pull it off.

[Keithambrose]

26 minutes ago, reader said:

With AI, I’d imagine a smart programmer could pull it off.

I assume there would have to be additional questions when you apply for a ticket. How many different  airlines serve Bangkok? How would the Thai authorities  check that the necessary  people had paid, etc? Also, how would Thailand  collect the money  off the airlines. I suppose that if there was a brown envelope opportunity,  things might go more smoothly!

[Keithambrose]

A simpler way would be a daily small tax on hotel rooms. This is common in Europe.  Easy to operate and collect. Most hotel guests will be 'travellers'.

[floridarob]

15 hours ago, Keithambrose said:

I saw that was one of the suggestions, but how will the airline know whether the tax is payable, ie. a tourist, payable, or a Thai national, or other exempt category, not payable.

Mexico has a tourism tax that citizens and residents don't pay that is collected by the airline. Where it asks for passport and nationality and residency , that is how it's determined. If I use a US credit card, I change the country to Mexico and the zip code, I use my US one...the credit card system looks for name, Credit Card number, CVV2 and zip code to approve or use a Mexican card.

[Keithambrose]

7 hours ago, floridarob said:

Mexico has a tourism tax that citizens and residents don't pay that is collected by the airline. Where it asks for passport and nationality and residency , that is how it's determined. If I use a US credit card, I change the country to Mexico and the zip code, I use my US one...the credit card system looks for name, Credit Card number, CVV2 and zip code to approve or use a Mexican card.

Fair enough, but I can't see Thailand  getting their act together  to deal with all the airlines that fly to Bangkok,  collecting the money, which I assume is in different currencies,  depending  on the airline, onverting it into exactly  Baht300, etc. How will the airline, in say, Pakistan, charge Baht300, in local currency? I suppose  that where there's a will there's  a way, but it seems odd to add in an expensive  layer of bureaucracy to collect a small amount of money. 

[Mavica]

It's not rocket science.  Thailand will figure it out, as other countries have.

[Keithambrose]

6 hours ago, Mavica said:

It's not rocket science.  Thailand will figure it out, as other countries have.

Possibly,  but Thailand  doesn't have the best record in this area! As I said, surely a nightly hotel tax would be simpler?

[daydreamer]

12 hours ago, Keithambrose said:

Fair enough, but I can't see Thailand  getting their act together  to deal with all the airlines that fly to Bangkok,  collecting the money, which I assume is in different currencies,  depending  on the airline, onverting it into exactly  Baht300, etc. How will the airline, in say, Pakistan, charge Baht300, in local currency? I suppose  that where there's a will there's  a way, but it seems odd to add in an expensive  layer of bureaucracy to collect a small amount of money. 

Thailand has already included a departure tax into the price of international airline tickets for about 20 years, so they should not have any problem with collecting this new revenue stream from the airlines. 

Before the departure tax was included in the ticket price (about 20 years ago), every departing international passenger was required to buy a paper tax receipt for 500 baht in cash after check-in, and then immigration officers collected the tax receipt when the traveler passed through immigration, upon departure.  I remember machines in the airport departure terminal that sold those paper tax receipts.  Tourists used to be reminded to keep 500 baht cash when leaving the country, to pay the tax. 

Over the years, and after the tax was integrated into the ticket price, the international departure tax increased from 500 baht to 600, then to 700 baht, and recently it was increased to the present 730 Baht.  This fee is invisible, as it is now built into the international airline ticket prices.  Domestic passengers currently pay a tax of 130 baht on flights.

This newest tax is being called a "tourism arrival fee or tax", and will be 300 baht (in the beginning).  So once the new tourist arrival fee is implemented, between the two taxes, a round-trip international air traveler will pay 300 baht arrival tax, and 730 baht departure tax, for a total of 1,030 baht. 

 

https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/general/2866607/minister-aims-to-levy-300-baht-tourism-tax