His Majesty the King granted Dhar to appoint heads and Commissioners of the Anti Corruption Commission, Election Commission of Bhutan and the Royal Audit Authority yesterday. The new ACC Chairperson is the former RCSC Commissioner Kinley Yangzom. She served as a RCSC commissioner from 2009 to 2014. She joined the …

The Cabinet in a meeting held towards the end of June 2015 asked the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economic Affairs to study the possible handover of Business Opportunity and Information Center (BOiC) operations to the Bhutan Development Bank Limited (BDBL). This could mean the effective dissolution of …

In what is yet another indicator of India’s uncertain energy market, Tata Power Trading Company (TPTC) is currently making losses in selling Dagachu project’s power in India.  The company is also facing red tape challenges in trying to sell its power on the Power Exchange of India Limited. TPTC has …

With the Haa Dzongkhag court exonerating the Foreign Minister recently, many were surprised with the government’s decision to propose to His Majesty the King for the effective replacement of the Foreign Minister Lyonpo Rinzin Dorji. The Prime Minister has put up a proposal to His Majesty whereby the Minister for …

The government may have given up collecting Business Income Tax from small rural businesses but rural shopkeepers in the Dzongkhags were surprised to find local Bhutan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) officials coming to collect the annual membership fees. Similarly in Thimphu when businessmen and women went to renew …

The National Reading Year initiative received a rude jolt when book stores in Thimphu and across Bhutan started getting charged with an additional 20 percent customs tax in addition to the five percent sales tax they were already paying for importing books from India. In response 11 bookstores in Thimphu …

The Bhutan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) is drafting a proposal to liberalize the tourism tariff structure. The final report is expected to be submitted by BCCI to the cabinet by next month. A senior BCCI official said that the ‘Thai Offer’ of discounted tariff rates made to tourists …

For a project whose costs escalated from the estimated Nu 35 bn at 2006 price levels to around Nu 97 bn today, one would have expected the Punatsangchu Hydroelectric Project Authority Management (PHPA) -I  to be more thrifty but an audit report shows otherwise. A joint audit report of the …

Infinity and ILFS will however have to show bills to claim the above In a final step to bring closure to the Bhutan Education City (BEC) project, the government has agreed to pay Nu 99.38 mn to the BEC project developers Infinity and Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (ILFS) to …

Yangphel CEO confident of a turnaround with improved approach road  In 2011 the National Pension and Provident Fund (NPPF) and Yangphel Housing partnered together on a ‘Home Ownership Project’ designed especially for NPPF members by starting the construction of 136 apartments in a three acre land in Kabesa, Thimphu. However, …