Food Inflation to keep rising The Ministry of Finance in a report to the government has said that even in the best case scenario of an ongoing lockdown the unemployment level in 2020 is expected to be 8.3 percent up from 2.7 percent in 2019. This would translate into 27,500 …

In response to the National Council asking for the ACC to validate if sections 54, 58 and 63 of the Anti Corruption Act of Bhutan 2011 (ACAB) had been violated in the government nominating Tenzin Lekphell as the next Secretary General of BIMSTEC, the ACC wrote back on 21st September …

As part of its larger recommendations to the government to boost economic activities in the backdrop of COVID, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MoEA) has pointed to the high cost of transport and the time taken as one of the key economic weaknesses of Bhutan. To overcome this, the MoEA …

Finance Minister says economy will recover to 1.3 % growth by June 2021 The Fiscal Incentives 2017 will be running out by 31st December 2020. The incentives which were originally brought in from 2010 are mostly tax breaks given to various sectors of the economy like services, manufacturing and others. …

The Finance Minister Lyonpo Namgay Tshering said that, the Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) as the central bank and the Financial Institutions are working on monetary measures to ensure more liquidity. Lyonpo said that at the moment there is enough liquidity with around Nu 20 bn lying with the FIs. The …

Plans are also in place encourage mines, industries and trade In order to deal with the COVID-19 impact on the economy and enhance economic growth, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MoEA) will be leading efforts to remove various red tape, regulatory and licensing requirements to make it much faster and …

A major worry for the Financial Institutions (FIs) is its Non Performing Loans (NPLs) quite a few of which was even before the COVID-19 pandemic due to an economic slowdown, and now set to be worse when the loan deferral period is over in June 2021. The NPLs are also …

The Health Minister said that when it comes to Thimphu they have a general risk assessment criterion which looks at population, mobility, positive cases and containment measures. She said that of the four criteria Thimphu already fulfills three of them. Thimphu has high population with around 150,000 people all living …

The Private Sector Task Force for COVID-19 has proposed the reduction of taxes as one way to help spur new investments and growth and potentially get in new FDI. The idea behind reduction in taxes is that the government anyhow would not get any revenue if there is no income …

The biggest hit of COVID-19 has been taken by the private sector and so the Private Sector Task Force for COVID-19 which has already played an important role in giving private sector feedback for Phase Two of the relief measures, quite a few of which was accepted and adopted, is …