Vimolrat Singnikorn
Pattaya business leaders fear four draft amendments
to Thailand’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Act now under consideration
will deal another blow to the country’s tourism industry.
The measures, explained to the Pattaya Business &
Tourism Association at its Nov. 17 meeting at the A-One Royal Cruise
Hotel, would prohibit many outlets from selling cocktails with fruit or
vegetable juice, ban all alcohol sales within 500 meters of a school,
require graphic warning labels to cover 30 percent of bottles and cans,
and explicitly ban drinking while driving.
Imagine ordering a 5,000 baht bottle of wine in a fancy restaurant, and
when it arrives at your table you see a label showing a drunken man
beating his wife as the child begs him to stop.
Roundly criticized by the World Trade Organization,
public health groups and business interests inside and outside of
Thailand, the new amendments to the already controversial law would
negatively impact Pattaya and other tourist area more than other regions
of the country, PBTA President Jamroon Vitsavachaipan said.
“The proposed legislation is still too imprecise,” he
said. “It needs to have language added so that tourism businesses are
not affected and warning labels on the bottle should have text business
owners would not object to.”
To help local bar and restaurant owners understand
the threat the draft amendments pose, the PBTA invited Plangsit
Sutpreeyasri of the Thai Alcohol and Beverage Business Association, to
brief members on the proposals. While government officials claim the
amendments are aimed at stemming alcohol use among teens and drivers,
the proposals are yet another blunt instrument that can do more damage
than good, he said.
The most controversial proposal, especially
internationally, is a requirement that alcohol bottles be given the same
graphic warning labels as cigarettes, with scenes depicting mutilated
bodies from car crashes and husbands beating their wives. Restaurant
owners roll their eyes imaging the reaction customers will have when
presented a 5,000 baht bottle of wine adorned with such photos.
Business owners are equally outraged over proposals
that ban the mixing of drinks with fruit juice, syrup or fruit-scented
water. Such drinks are allowed in “entertainment areas” but the
definition of those areas under current laws is so unclear, bar owners
fear Screwdrivers and Bloody Marys will be taken off most menus in
Thailand.
Plangsit also explained that areas within 500 meters
of schools would be designated alcohol-free zones. The same provision
also attempts to crack down on unlicensed bars and street stalls that
sell alcohol, prohibiting use in public areas except for licensed clubs
or private residences.
Finally, the proposals would specifically outlaw
drinking alcohol while operating motorized vehicles.
Jamroon contended that, despite the vague provision
about selling alcohol in public areas, the revised law would penalize
legitimate businesses more than the ad-hoc bars that pop up on curbs
after midnight and at unlicensed entertainment venues.
Other critics agree, saying cracking down on
unlicensed venues - many of which use illegally imported liquor - would
do more to curb alcohol abuse and boost tax revenues than any of the new
measures. Others point out Thailand’s entire alcohol tax code is
backwards to the rest of world’s, which tax beverages based on the
amount of alcohol they contain.
Thailand’s laws, by contrast, tax beer and
low-alcohol beverages at more than twice the rate of whiskey and other
heavy liquor. Additionally, angering the WTO, cheap Thai-made whiskey
and rum is given a tax break over imported spirits. Thai government
officials have said taxing cheap liquor higher would hurt the poor, a
claim Thai health group scoff at, arguing the government isn’t worried
about alcoholism, as long as it only affects the rural poor.
Combined with existing provisions that ban any
alcohol advertising outside or inside a club, bar or restaurant, the
latest Alcoholic Beverage Control Provisions “can only impact tourism
further in Pattaya,” Jamroon said.
