Thai News

Dave's friend Paul should have known that he needed a Thai Driving Licence or an International Driving Permit together with his foreign Driving Licence. That being said the regular fine for driving without a valid licence is only 400 baht (see picture I found on internet), up from 200 baht.

In December 2017 a new form of traffic ticket is being introduced (see pictures from Bangkok Post).

Note that one of the possible offences is: Beyond the stop line when waiting for the traffic light. Many motorcyclists, also farangs, seem to ignore that. I find this strange as this rule also applies in Farangland.

A new long term visa aimed at professionals wishing to live and work in Thailand will launch in January 2018, according an update from the Prime Minister's office.

The Smart Visa was announced earlier this year but details have only just been released including no work permit needed for certain types of professions, annual reporting instead of the usual 90 days, plus equivalent benefits for spouses and children of the holder.

However there is a slight hurdle of having to earn 200,000 Baht a month before being considered a high flyer.

According to information on the pmdu.soc.go.th website, Smart Visa's fall into three categories:

1. Highly skilled experts specialising in tech, aviation, healthcare etc. This group will receive a 4-year visa without a work permit.
2. Investors who have been promoted by the Board of Investment (BOI) investing in 10 target industries will receive a visa term of between 2-4 years, depending on which industry they invest in.
3. Startups in certain fields will be granted a visa period of 2-4 years, depending on their field. As an example, if it is a hi-tech business, the visa term would be 4 years.

Further details will follow.

Threats of 100,000 Baht fines for smoking on the beach have recently been supeceded by figures of 2000 Baht.

The authorities have come up with some bizarre notions that smokers will be placated by providing them with smoking booths where their habit is tolerated.

The smoking booths are small cubicles of glass of Perspex complete with ash trays and an extractor fan to expel the smoke outside.

Channel 3 reported that there were to be 10 such booths along the stretch of Bang Saen beach to allow smokers top have a puff without annoying others or threatening the sandy ecosystem with discarded nubs.

Chief of marine and coastal resources Jatuporn Burutphat, who came up with the plan to ban smoking on Thai beaches, made a tour of inspection with a few dozen of his smiling entourage, probably desperately trying not to giggle.

Run! It's the beach police

In a bizarre over reaction to the problem of cigarette butts littering Thai beaches, the authorities are introducing massive fines and jail time for tourists transgressing a no smoking ban, to be introduced in November this year.

The measure will be introduced initially in 20 of the resorts most popular with foreign visitors including Phuket and Pattaya. The ban, which will come into effect next month, will apply to beaches in the provinces of Phuket, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Chon Buri and Songkhla, and includes the popular resorts of Koh Samui and Pattaya.

t comes after the country's Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) said it had retrieved tens of thousands of cigarette butts left in the sand. The head of the department, Jatuporn Buruspat, said that up to 138,000 cigarette butts had been collected by the environmental group over a 2.5km (1.5 miles) stretch of Patong beach in Phuket. Jatuporn added that the while smoking will be prohibited on the beaches affected by the measure, there will be designated areas further inland where smokers will be able to smoke and drop their litter in provided containers.

Jatuporn Buruspat said that officials were also considering measures aimed at tackling the related issue of cigarette butts being dropped by tourists from boats.

One of the areas affected is looking forward to the collections of fines. A representative of the Hua Hin authority has announced that tetsakit, tourist police, and what was termed 'beach police' would be patrolling to enforce the ban. On a slightly more positive note, the Hua Hin authorities are considering a lower fine of 2,000 baht. But it still has to be a terrifying prospect of commission based wardens being a little over-zealous with imaginative enforcement methods.

And in another new measure targeting beach goes, Pattaya authorities have introduced a ban preventing beach vendors from selling alcohol. The measure came into force at the start of October this year but early reports suggest that the new prohibition is not yet being enforced and that beers and cocktails are still readily available.

Spotify, the world's leading music streaming subscription service, launched on Tuesday in Thailand.

Spotify offers both a free ad-supported music service and an upgraded ad-free subscription service.

Users can listen for free or alternatively upgrade to Spotify Premium for Bt129 per month. Daily and weekly payment options are also available. The subscription rates compares well with the £10 a month in the UK.

Boasting a vast catalogue of over 30 million songs, all available to both free users and subscribers, Spotify says it comes to Thailand offering the very best in both local and international music. However Spotify also notes that not all tracks are available in all countries.

Music cannot be downloaded for use outside of the Spotify controlled environment, but there are apps that can record music being played through the audio system of one's device.

A new law has come into force since its publication in the Royal Gazette on January 15 under which each household will have to pay 350 Baht monthly for garbage collection and disposal fees.

And this is only for a basic tier of 120kg or 600 items per month. There will be high charges for heavier users.

The law empowers local administration authorities to manage garbage collection and disposal and set the rules regarding separation, collection and disposal. In addition scavenging will be banned presumably so that councils can do their own scavenging.

There do not seem to be any details on how payment will be collected, nor how the weighing and item counting will be implemented. And there is nothing on how this very expensive fee can possibly be afforded by minimum wage Thais.

Update: Hold on a moment

25th January 2017 See article from nationmultimedia.com

The Bangkok Metropolitan Authority and other municipalities have said they needed time to study the issue before they could implement the new payment plan, which increases garbage collection fees from the current Bt20 a month per household to 350 Baht a month.

Bangkok Council member Chayawuth Siriyutwattana said it would take some time for councillors to mull over the proposal and the matter would be tabled at the council's March meeting. To implement the new law, the city must issue a regulation for its implementation in Bangkok, he said, adding that the new rate would not be enforced until that happened.

The city's current collection fee brings in about Bt500 million a year to city coffers, although the city actually pays about Bt6.5 billion to manage and dispose of garbage.

To illustrate the expensive fee, the current old age pension for those age 60 to 69 is 600 Baht a month. I can't imagine they will be very pleased to be charged 350 Baht to get rid of their rubbish.