In the recent past whenever questions arose about the Puth Group, some people online put up a 26 January 2024 e-commerce license of a man named Phuntsho Wangdi to give the scheme an air of legitimacy. The Bhutanese tracked down Phuntsho Wangdi who is based in Thimphu and asked him …
Read More »Payment controversy for 6 Chinese tourists
Around a week ago a 6-member group of Chinese tourists spent around 6 nights in Bhutan staying in the top end luxury hotels in Amman Paro and Sixth Sense in Thimphu with room rates of around USD 2,000 per night. The total tour package for Bhutan including air tickets was …
Read More »Around 320 visas of Bhutanese cancelled from 2010 to 2024
With tightening visa restrictions and rules in Australia, The Bhutanese sent queries to Australia’s Department of Home Affairs asking the number of visas held by Bhutanese nationals that have been cancelled, from the financial year 2010 – 11 to 2023 – 24 (to 31 March 2024). The Department got back …
Read More »BFDA looking into pesticide contamination in MDH and Everest Masala
MDH, a popular Indian spice brand, has been in controversy following allegations of pesticide contamination in some of its pre-packaged spice products. This comes after Hong Kong suspended sales of certain spice mixes over high levels of ethylene oxide, triggering Singapore to recall MDH, and another Indian spice brand, Everest, …
Read More »Major financing headache ahead for some of PDP’s freebie pledges
At 138 pages the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Manifesto was by far the longest and most detailed of the five competing political parties. By comparison the Opposition Bhutan Tendrel Party (BTP) which had the shortest manifesto, had only 63 pages. At one level the PDP manifesto arose from experience in …
Read More »A pledge delivered on Teacher’s Day
Since the Peoples’ Democratic Party’s victory in the parliamentary election, there has been a great anticipation amongst the people that the government honor its pledge to keep Saturdays as a holiday in schools. The government had to carefully consider the pledge from various perspectives, leading to extensive research and resulting …
Read More »Nu 10,000 for third child to cost Govt Nu 6 bn in 5 years
One of the current government’s most popular and discussed pledges is the offer to give Nu 10,000 per month for the birth of a third child till the age of three. A study done on the matter based its projection on the number of third child born in the last …
Read More »Nu 150,000 life insurance to cost Nu 3.261 billion in 5 years in premium costs
The current government had made a pledge to increase the Rural Life Insurance (RLI) sum from Nu 30,000 to Nu 150,000. However, this means that the insurance premium to be paid will increase from the current Nu 121.15 million (mn) a year to Nu 652.36 mn a year, which is …
Read More »GovTech working on Govt pledge to lower data rates
One of the pledges of PDP is to ‘Initiate reduction of telecom charges, such as data charges to 50 percent of the current rate or equivalent to the rates in India.’ The GovTech Agency is working on this pledge of the government, to reduce data charges, and while there are …
Read More »Her Majesty graces Tiger Conference
Her Majesty The Gyaltsuen graced the opening of the Sustainable Finance for Tiger Landscapes Conference, a globally significant summit co-organised by the Royal Government of Bhutan and the Tiger Conservation Coalition, at Dungkar Dzong in Pangbisa, Paro on 22nd April. In the Inaugural Address, Her Majesty, under whose patronage the …
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The Bhutanese Leading the way.