The Enterprise Registration Bill of Bhutan, 2013 has been deferred to the next session of the Parliament as some of the MPs pointed out the discrepancies in the Dzongkha and English versions of the Bill, leading to ambiguities, as decided yesterday in the National Assembly.
The Enterprise Registration Bill of Bhutan, 2013 will take into account the registration of enterprises, adopting provisions regarding partnerships and sole proprietorships and related matters, establishing the legal status of enterprises and to ensure the public reliability and accessibility of the information collected by or under such an Act.
Most of the MPs said that the Bill is an important one as it will have an impact on the economic development of the country through the enhancement of the private sector.
While deliberating on Section 4 of the Bill, the MPs said there were discrepancies in the Dzongkha and English versions of the Bill, and therefore, the House addressed the translation ambiguities in the Bill.
The House made amendments on Section 4, which states that the principal objective of the Act is to provide for the establishment and maintenance of a register of enterprises would constitute facilitation of any license, sector clearance, permit of authorization necessary for the conduct of the intended business of that enterprise, and registration of the owner of the sole proprietorship enterprise or partnership enterprise as a taxpayer.
Lyonpo Norbu Wangchuk said the translation of the Bill in Dzongkha was done by a private individual, as the ministry does not have any specialized language translators. He said the Bill will be beneficial to people operating small business enterprises, and therefore, the ministry needs to have more consultations with the business community and relevant agencies.
He said more time will be required to address the differences in the Dzongkha and English versions of the Bill.
The MPs also agreed that more consultations need to be carried out on the Bill, and the House decided to deliberate on the Bill in next session of the Parliament. The Bill is expected to help about 42,000 small businesses.
The Khar-Urung constituency MP, Zangley Dukpa, said allowing more time for consultations on the Bill will help refine it, even in the translation of Bill. He said the language translation, from English to Dzongkha, is very difficult.
The Bardo-Trong constituency MP, Lekey Dorji, said if the Enterprise Registration Bill and the Companies Act could be merged together as the people might get confused with having too many of the similar Acts.
The Panbang MP, Dorji Wangdi, said the Enterprise Registration Bill and the Companies Act cannot be merged together as they are different.
The House resolved that the Economic Development and Private Sector Committee would review on whether or not, the Enterprise Registration Bill and the Companies Act could be merged together, and a report on the matter is to be submitted for deliberations.