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Thai court fines Philip Morris $40 million for customs breach

Published 11/29/2019, 07:30 PM
Updated 11/29/2019, 07:32 PM
© Reuters. Thai court fines Philip Morris $40 million for customs breach

By Panarat Thepgumpanat
BANGKOK, Nov 29 (Reuters) - A Thai court fined the local
unit of Philip Morris PM.N 1.2 billion baht ($40 million) for
customs violations on cigarette imports on Friday, while
dropping criminal charges against seven of its employees.
The Thai public prosecutor filed charges in 2016 against
Philip Morris Thailand and seven of its Thai employees, alleging
under-reporting of the value of more than 270 entries of
imported cigarettes from the Philippines between 2003 and 2006
which led to a revenue losses of more than 306 million baht.
"I'm very happy for the employees that were completely
acquitted in this case," said Gerald Margolis, branch manager of
Philip Morris Thailand.
"However, we strongly but respectfully disagree with this
decision and we'll promptly appeal," he said, adding that the
company has complied with local laws and World Trade
Organization (WTO) rules.
The Philippines went to the WTO in 2008 to complain that
Thailand was illegally discriminating against imports to protect
its state-controlled Thailand Tobacco Monopoly.
A 2010 WTO said that Thailand had no grounds to reject the
import price of cigarettes from the Philippines.
The Philippines has said that a series of domestic taxation
and customs valuations by Thailand that started in 2006
undermined the competitiveness of its cigarettes against those
produced by the state-controlled Thailand Tobacco Monopoly.
($1 = 30.1900 baht)

(Writing by Panu Wongcha-um;
Editing by Alexander Smith)

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