HEADLINE STORIES

On 22 October 2022 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) announced that around 60,000 passports would enter the country by the last week of October 2022. MFA then put out a notification on its website saying from 2 November 2022, it would issue 200 passports in a day with 50 …

A review by the Economic and Finance Committee (EFC) of the National Assembly has found that while mobile phones worth billions are being imported into Bhutan a large chunk of it is suspected to be deflected to India. The EFC Chairman MP Kinga Penjor who led the review or investigation …

RBP to fix accountability This year, so far 15 inmates have escaped from various locations in the country, 1 from Chamgang central prison, 1 from the hospital, 1 from Samdrupjongkhar, 10 from Thimphu Central Police’s detention center and 2 recently from South Thimphu. Of the 15 escapees, police managed to …

His Majesty The King and Her Majesty The Gyaltsuen, accompanied by Their Royal Highnesses Gyalsey Jigme Namgyel and Gyalsey Ugyen Wangchuck graced the Panbang Tshechu today. The Tshechu, held at Soenamcholing Dratshang since 1997, began this year on November 12th. Coinciding with the Descending Day of Lord Buddha, the Guru …

In mid 2010 the first elected government announced that it would be coming up soon with taxes to prevent the consumption of unhealthy junk food. Even though it had 45 MPs in Parliament the government soon gave up the idea of a junk food tax due to media and public …

There has always been confusion in all the major pay revisions so far with complicated figures, percentages and allowances and so many civil servants and public servants are left scratching their heads until they get their pay slips and even then some don’t really know. This time around was no …

The Property Tax Bill of Bhutan 2022 with its 0.1% annual tax based on the value of the land and house will generate upwards of more than Nu 600 mn a year up from the current Nu 57 mn collected every year. Currently the Property Tax is collected by Thromdes …

The special education loan scheme introduced by the Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) from Monday has attracted almost 1,300 applications within a week and still counting with the three commercial banks, Bhutan National Bank (BNB), Bank of Bhutan (BoB), and Druk Punjab National Bank (DPNB). After much outcry from the public …

The Finance Minister Namgay Tshering presented the Pay Structure Bill of Bhutan 2022 under which the Pay Structure shall comprise of fixed pay and variable pay. The Fixed pay shall comprise of Monthly Basic Pay (MBP) applied for the calculation of post service benefits and other computations currently pegged to the basic pay, and secondly the Non-Pensionable Monthly …

The tragic Takti Bus Accident that has led to the death of 6 monks of the Kanglung Shedra on 12 November could have been avoided if the 49-year-old bus driver had heeded the requests by the monks in the bus to slow down. Before Takti, the bus nearly had an …