NEWS - Import of Burmese furniture

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Subject: NEWS - Import of Burmese furniture to continue Concerns that wood

is of Thai origin
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BANGKOK POST - July 8, 1999

BORDER TRADE

Import of Burmese furniture to continue Concerns that wood is of Thai
origin

Supamart Kasem

The provincial governor has agreed to allow the import of wooden
furniture
from Burma to continue despite concern that such products might have
been
made of Thai wood.

Governor Huekharn Tomornsak said yesterday the import would continue
provided it was made in line with all the regulations agreed last year.

Parties concerned met last year and decided to allow in Burmese
furniture
imports on condition that they have permission from provincial customs
authorities, and that importers pay taxes at the port of entry and are
able
to produce documents to verify the origins of their imported goods.

Vorasak Puangdek, Mae Sot's customs chief, said the import was permitted
with the aim of collecting more taxes.

For more than a decade before the import was permitted, traders had been
paying under the table a lot of money that should have been collected as
taxes, Mr Vorasak said.

Following the permission, he said, more taxes could be collected as the
volume of Burmese furniture imports rose. In 1997 before the permission,
customs authorities could collect only 3.3 million baht in taxes,
compared
with 23.3 million baht collected last year, and 30.9 million baht
collected
in the first six months of this year, he said.

Forestry officials, meanwhile, said a large number of furniture items in
Mae
Sot, Tha Song Yang, and Phrop Phra had been taken to the Mae Sot customs
office where taxes were paid for them without proper verification of the
origins of the goods.

They also claimed illegal logging still continued unabated in the
forests of
Tak.

Buyers also have complained about furniture dealers' refusal to issue to
them with receipts and tax invoices, thus causing them to be taxed by
customs authorities again.