| HN Mirror

True, there is powerty in Thailand but the saying goes; everybody gets food to eat, people share. Not so easy in western countries. Thailand has no snow, most of time its pretty warm and rice grows all year round :)

Even now in deep financial crisis (no covid within Thailand at the moment) people get food donations. People who have more created cabinets where poorer people can pick up food for free. Its not pretty but it works. People donate to orphanages so children dint starve. Yes. No social net for them either.

Well we cant blame foreigners and their social nets, charging them 10x more because Thailand hasnt made sufficient social coverage from taxes is still discrimination.

Most Thai people in Thailand pay no income tax. VAT is 7%. Every foreigner working in TH must pay income tax - which is fine - they live there. But foreigners cant finance the social security system alone :)

Lets say some european country charges 20% VAT, and for average worker 35%+ income tax. Not to count higher municipal taxes for water, electricity, garbage collection. This is what pays for national parks. For social security, for good education, for better roads. For Thai tourists entering the same national parks at same price like local residents because anything else would be discrimination and is illegal. And youre welcome.

As for those Thai people who are very very poor (in Thailand). They usually dont go to national parks because the transportation and food there would be too expensive even with the cheaper entrance fees. They go to local forests or rivers instead. They pick mushrooms, hunt wildlife e.g fish and lizards to eat. Ive seen this first hand. They hitch a ride fromm their village to nearest “town” on the back of someones truck as the regular “passenger truck” is out of their financial reach. Still, overall they have a good life, they grow some crops or keep animals. They live usually with extended family closeby, spend time with family and friends and are happy.

The fact that a part of Thai population is poor does not justify discrimination of foreigners.

Most Thai people at big Thai national parks come with nice cars (which even i could not afford). If the poorer are lucky to get to a national park, then the whole family rides huddled on the back of a pickup truck, no safety belts or seats.

Lol visa discrimination. I do agree that many countries made it harder to obtain visa. And so has Thailand. Simply because some people all over the world abuse visa regulations and the good folks suffer because of the changes.

My friend from USA has also to apply for his tourist visa at Thai embassy. And he has to pay for it too. There are often hurdles for that.

Foreigners are denied visas or visa extensions. Sometimes for silly buerocratic reasons. And you wouldnt believe how often the reasons change. Very stressful and humiliating.

Every year, a foreign friend has to extend his business visa. He has legitimate business, with employees, pays all required salary taxes and company profit taxes etc. He loves Thailand and has a family. One year, after waiting for hours in queue at immigration he was told they cant accept his visa extension application.

Why? Because the revenue department issued official tax payment receipt is not accepted anymore without a separate additional stamp from revenue department to make it “official”.

Nobody told him before, so he lost half a day just to have to go back to revenue department to get a stamp on their officially issued tax receipt which makes it “more official”.

Then he has to go back to queue at immigration and after hours of waiting, gets told by officers that this year they require some additional documents. Nobody told him before. If they accept the application he gets 1 month extension only while they check his documents and he has to come back before expiration of that month to receive final approval or rejection of his application.

What if there is recession? A foreigner orperated company in Thailand must have 25% profit. Otherwise he cant extend his visa. A payment of profit tax is required. :) Businesses operated by Thai citizens arent required to make profit. (That foreigner still has to pay 10x more at national parks, lol)

So every year, he submits his visa extension and if they dont approve it, he has 7 days to leave the country. What about his Thai wife and children, car he bought, house they rent, all belongings? He cant afford to fly them overseas and get visas for them, plus a job for his wife, school for kids etc.

Life overseas is x times more expensive. Just becuase someone has higher salary overseas than a Thai person in Thailand doesnt mean that they have more money left at end of month.

At the same time in Thailand, an educated Thai person with some expertise in their field gets same salary as a foreigner with equal expertise. If not even more :) companies are reluctant to hire foreigners due to paperwork and revenue department scrutiny involved. If a small company hires more than 2 foreigners their company income tax doubles. This goes wirh the fact that for every foreigner hired they must hire 4 Thai employees.

Did i mention that foreigners have to check in every 90 days at immigration to report that they still live on same adress? (Even if they havent moved in 15 years, sounds a bit ridiculous, right?). If youre late for the 90 days report thats 2000 baht fine. If you forget and they caught you its jail and 4000 Baht.

Additionally if my friend leaves the country e.g. on a business trip to Vietnam or to visit parents in home country, upon return to the same house in Thailand in which he lived for years, he must be reported by landlord within 24h at immigration that he returned to that same house. Never mind the fact that he entered the country through immigration and had to fill in a form where he will be staying.

If the landlord doesnt want to go make the report (happens if they didnt disclose the rent as income), the person who is fined is the foreigner (2000THB) becuase he is the one who has to have that report paper. Furthermore without that landlords report, the foreigner cant make the 90 days report or visa extension etc at immigration. Imagine how humiliating that is.

If the foreigner decides to take vacation within the country, the guesthouse/hotel has to report him to immigration within 24h. Then after return home upcountry the landlord must do the same report agin within 24 hours.

By law a foreigner who leaves the registered place of living and stays overnight somewhere else has to go to nearest immigration or police station and report himself to be there now, within 48h. Also when he returns to same registered place of living he has to make same report that he is now back. Thats besides the fact that the landlord has to make the same report on different form as outlined above.

There is one worthwile category of foreigners to mention. People from certain countries have to make a request at local immigration or police station and apply for permit if they want to travel outside the district. Without that approval they arent alowed to leave, lol, lets say to visit the national park in other district of same province. If they get caught without that permit to travel within country, they face fines and deportation. And humiliation.

This last group of foreigners is often the lowest paid group of people, even less than Thais. So no not all foriegners can afford your $12.9 to enter national parks at discriminatory prices.

Now while it may look all bad, i have to say that most foreigners who live in Thailand are happy to be there and love the country. They just dont like the discrimination and being ripped off :) if you know what i mean.