Importing Shisha in Singapore

[ksl]

SOEX (Flavoured herbal molasses) to replace tobacco! 40 different Fresh and juicy flavours. Arabian Nights foil sheets are used to cover the ceramic bowls/chillums with burning charcoal on top and molasses inside to preserve aroma and resist heat.

One of your product line issit ?

No but I do have the supplier in Malaysia Met them at the KL exhibition 2010. So I'm reading from their booklet Have to stay on the healthy lifestyle products, not inhaling fragrant molasses....or glue sniffing

[the lynx]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply

I went to Arab street, and the Hookah costs around 200 SGD, I did not ask for the tobacco but friends told me it is quite expensive compare to what you can get in Malaysia. But if understand well, there is no way to import the tobacco without paying huge taxes or ending up in jail.

I am reliable told that Hookers around Geylang are considerable less !!

I'm comfortable to guess that you've read OP wrongly

[s_shah]

Recently (i.e. Dec 2013) checked the arab street and asked the shopkeepers ...u can get hookah from anywhere into singapore, that is permitted (likewise can take it outside of Singapore to any country). I saw hookahs being sold for an avg of S$80 (though there was a small hookah being sold for S$40 - i think for personal consumption the small one should be fine, it wasnt really tall but should work well for using at home)...the tobacco / flavours were being sold for S$30 for a few grams (i think 25gms), it would not last for more than 2 hookahs...about importing the flavours - i think it is risky, have read news articles on people smuggling hookah flavours and being caught. In Singapore, islandwide only flavours containing tobacco are sold (tobacco content is 0.5% if i remember it correctly). But in India, they do have herbal flavours which have 0% nicotine, tobacco and tar. The soex site mentioned above is the one that manufactures herbal (tobacco free) flavours in india. Apparently, they have more or less the same effect as tobacco flavours. I don't know if they would be willing to send you those via courier or something and how the customs authorities in Singapore would react to that.

[JR8]

Despite all the promises, herbal 'substitutes' for tobacco or indeed 'whacky-baccy', provide no kind of substitute at all.

People smoke, for the active ingredients. There is no virtue puffing on a smouldering pile of pot-pourri.

I have smoked a few shisha in my time, in the Middle East. The people I shared them with, people who lived there, rated imported Jordanian shisha tobacco as the best. Flavour-wise, I enjoyed apple flavoured tobacco the most.

It's not something I'd make a habit of, but if offered a Jordanian apple 'pipe' then I'd probably be happy to accept it.

[FaeLLe]

You can get hold of a customs clearing agent who can help you import it into signapore.

When I travel abroad I ship / scan him the invoice and wire transfer the duty after which he emailed me the PDF of the import license.

I just used to walk up to ICA Customs office at Changi and show the goods and the permit and they stamp it after which I just walk through Green Channel.

The taxes are high mind you, I paid an excise duty of 704 SGD excluding GST for 2 Kg of sheesha flavour (which I bought abroad for 35 SGD).

[JR8]

The taxes are high mind you, I paid an excise duty of 704 SGD excluding GST for 2 Kg of sheesha flavour (which I bought abroad for 35 SGD).

[FaeLLe]

I've no idea what the tobacco in a shisha weighs, 5 grams maybe? I wonder how his price (retail) compares vs yours (trade)...

10 grams will give a good session and the retail price of sheesha in Singapore is going to be much higher than Sharm Al Shaikh.

To break even on excise duty you would need to charge 28$, add a few $ to cost of sheesha and you are already priced at ~30$ which is almost what most places in Arab Street charge you.

All in all its going to cost way over 10 times the price you were charged in Egypt (after considering operational costs - rent, labour etc. and margin).

Gahmen does all they can to dissuade users from this intoxication.

[JR8]

So maybe S$50 a pipe?

I can't see that working myself, not at that price. A shisha would be a novelty here for most people. Who would pay that much for novelty? It might look rather romantic, but it's hard-core smoking (as smooth as it might taste you're banging full-on pipe tobacco straight into your lungs), as, not being able to speak the following morning will attest to.

I expect you could get yourself an A1 Cuban cigar for way less than that (I tried to check/source, but no one here seems to want to list prices, not even DFS at Changi, or Heathrow, or Dallas DFW!)

But then at the last moment I chanced upon this...
A box of the eminently easygoing and smokeable, and quite indulgent Cuban Montecristo #2 (my old very occasional fav from before I got married!! ), bought Duty Free, work out at S$16 a cigar. One of them might last you what, 45+ minutes; maybe somewhere the same as a very well-tended shisha? You still think paying triple the cost of a lux Cuban, for a shisha, is going to sell? Who to?

Ref:
ref: http://www.dubaidutyfree.com/shop/departure



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Gahmen does all they can to dissuade users from this intoxication.

No. Many governments raise 'sin taxes'. Taxes on things they tell you are bad for you. In that guise they are professing to act in your own interest right? (whilst taking your money by the wallet-full, and knowing little or nothing will stop you). It's an old tactic, of which Singapore also appears to be quite accomplished.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Back in the day......

They didn't have such High-falutin' names. We just called 'em bongs and were usually made out of chemistry lab supplies and usually only had one flavour!

OH, and a better time was had by all, I guarantee. lol

[JR8]

I remember making a bong from a gallon Gordon's gin flagon, a cork (with two holes), some glass piping, and pink rubber hosing, most of it 'borrowed' (long-term) from the labs at school.

High-Ol-Times ;


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy5E1qXLxt4
Cheech and Chong