Soon, the baggage carousels at the five major Thai airports will feature X-ray devices that scan all incoming baggage for items that are dutiable or not allowed, according to Kulit Sombatsiri, Customs Department director-general.
More than 20 X-ray machines will be placed on the carousels at Suvarnabhumi, while six more will be installed at Don Mueang, Phuket, Samui and Chiang Mai airports, reported Bangkok Post.
The machines should cost about THB2 billion. They will start to be installed next year and be up and running by 2018.
How it works now is that incoming bags are only X-rayed at random the the hope is that the baggage has been heavily checked in the outgoing airport and that people will declare their incoming taxable goods and that contraband has already been found, if any was present.
After the new X-ray initiative, all incoming baggage will be scanned for illegal items and taxable goods.
Taxable items found but not reported will be subjected to tax. People with illegal items can be prosecuted.
To help detect illegal or taxable items coming across land borders, THB681 million has also been allocated to purchase an X-ray device to use at road checkpoints.
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