Problems with shipping a bike as cargo to Thailand
This January Thai custom as well as the Clasquin import/export agency in Bangkok told me that a motorcycle arriving in Thailand as cargo is subject to full import duty, thus I had to re-route my shipment to Port Klang to avoid it. Now, I thought these messages was a bit odd since I've previously have shipped a bike by air from Kathmandu to Bangkok without paying any import duty and only signed the paper we get at the land-borders. When asking the agent in Kathmandu how this was made possible, he explained that he ship our bikes to Bangkok as luggage and not as cargo to avoid Thai import duty.
Now, the Dutch biker Maarten got the same message from his agent (MacNels) when shipping by sea from Singapore. The agent was absolutely convinced that Thai customs would impound the bike on arrival, but Maarten shipped his bike anyway and made it through the custom without any duty claim. A similar story was posted in the shipping section by Benka Pulko who shipped by sea from Japan to Bangkok. He was told by everybody that virtually everything was impossible, though in the end he got through the Thai custom without paying any import taxes.
In other words, professionals at the shipping end, the receiving end, and Thai custom - all of them dealing with import to Thailand on a daily basis - say that a vehicle arriving Thailand as cargo is a subject to full import duty. Yet here are two examples of travellers with a different experience. Was it two lucky cases, or what?
Any views/experiences on this?
If all these authorities are wrong, then do we have a name of an agent that know better and that can assist future travellers?
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