The Excise Department is preparing to revise the guidelines and conditions for the production of community liquor to improve competitiveness.
According to Deputy Finance Minister Paopoom Rojanasakul, the Finance Ministry is putting forward the draft amendments to the guidelines and conditions for small-scale or community liquor production for cabinet consideration and approval by January 2025.
It is expected that the amendments will come into effect by mid-February.
Mr Paopoom said the government's policy is to promote community liquor by reducing the barriers to entry for new producers, especially those in the "community liquor" group, by allowing them to obtain production licences.
This would enhance competitiveness, promote potential businesses, increase community income and encourage the use of domestic products to add value.
The revised guidelines and conditions include expanding opportunities for brewpubs and craft beer breweries to sell keg beer off-site, which was previously prohibited. Keg containers must be no smaller than 20 litres.
Additionally, small beer factories will be allowed to upgrade to medium-sized factories without the requirement of operating as a small factory for at least one year, as per the current regulations.
For community liquor factories, both small and medium-sized (mainly producing white liquor), the original regulation required that the factory be located at least 100 metres away from water sources.
This condition has been removed, but community liquor factories must have their own wastewater treatment system that meets the standards of the Pollution Control Department.
The removal of this requirement not only facilitates the establishment of liquor factories within communities, but it also allows communities to use local water sources as part of the liquor production process, which will become an integral part of the community liquor story.
Mr Paopoom added that the Excise Department aims to reduce regulatory barriers that hinder small and medium-sized producers, increase flexibility in business operations and promote competitiveness. This will stimulate the local economy through the development of community liquor, which will be further proposed for cabinet consideration.
According to Mr Paopoom, small and medium-sized liquor factories currently face challenges competing with large domestic producers. Removing these barriers would provide more opportunities for fair competition in this industry.
Currently, the categorisation of liquor factories in the country by size, namely small, medium and large, is based on the horsepower of the production machinery.
A factory using machinery of no more than five horsepower (hp) or no more than seven employees is considered to be a small factory.
A factory using machinery of more than five hp up to 50 hp is considered to be a medium-sized factory.
A factory using machinery of more than 50 hp is considered to be a large factory.
As for the tax rates, a single tax rate applies to all factory sizes. For example, for white liquor, the value-based tax rate is 2%, and the quantity-based tax rate is 155 baht per litre.
