Kan bli dyrt.
I see it has been asked many times in the past re duty free allowances and purchasing alcohol and cigarettes prior to arriving in Thailand, so just thought I would share our stupidity and give visitors more of a warning when it comes to duty free allowances in Thailand.
This is based on my own recent experience on arrival to Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok where we had a stopover in Dubai airport and with a few hours to spare, decided to do some airport shopping. We purchased confectionery, make up products and cigarettes - 800 cigarettes to be precise. Ironically I don't smoke but my friend is a very heavy smoker and as the cigarettes are quite cheap in Dubai compared to home, we purchased them thinking 'sure they're for personal use so it will be fine'!
Well obviously how stupid and it was far from fine.... as we collected our baggage and headed out of arrivals at Suvarnabhumi Airport, we were approached by a customs officer and asked to accompany him to the checking area where they asked us if we had purchased any duty free and proceeded to go through our bags as standard. We admitted that we had purchased goods and they were for personal use but obviously that doesn't matter as exceeding the duty free limits is just that, regardless of who the goods are for.
They advised us that we had exceeded the allowance and would have to pay a penalty and then took us off to the customs office within the airport. Thinking a penalty was going to be something like a slap on the wrist or a small fine and them confiscating the goods... well how wrong we were!
We ended up at the customs office in the airport for over two hours, were they went through the rules and regulations, called our embassy, had the cigarettes confiscated and were then fined a staggering EUR 1,000!!!!
We were told we could pay the fine immediately or be brought to the Thai Police station were we could lodge a complaint but it wouldn't really help as we had broken the law. Involving the Thai Police, I've no doubt would just have meant even more trouble and more money to be paid out, so we had no choice but to bite the bullet and pay up and accept our stupidity!
While we were in the customs office, they had brought in approx 10-15 other people who were also being fined for exceeding the duty free allowances on various produce, some with less and some with more, meaning huge fines.
So lesson learned on our part and also a warning to others that it is NOT wise to exceed the duty free allowances whether it be Thailand or anywhere else....
