The Bhutanese Leading the way.
‘Where there is a will there is a way’. The Members of Parliament (MP) in the National Assembly (NA) while discussing the Parliamentary Entitlements (Amendment) Bill of Bhutan 2024 today approved section 20 which is essentially the Prado Quota.
Section 20 says, ‘Every A Member of Parliament shall be provided with a designated duty vehicle of 2800 cc to 3000 cc or a one-time rationalized lump sum grant for the purchase of a duty vehicle with an exemption of customs duty and sale tax of a vehicle with 2800 to 3000 cc.”
The Parliamentary Entitlements (Amendment) Bill will be discussed tomorrow again and is likely to pass given the mood among the MPs in the NA.
The Finance Minister Lekey Dorji again took a lone stance arguing against the Prado quota saying it will lead to double vehicle imports as people use the money gained from selling the Prado Quota to buy another vehicle, hurt foreign reserves etc.
However, the majority of MPs from both the ruling and opposition parties supported having the Prado quota and some of them said that it is not a vehicle quota like that of civil servants who get such facilities every 7 years.
The Pay Structure Reform Act 2022 had removed Vehicle quotas for all. Section 63 (1) of the Pay Structure Reform Act 2022 says, “The issuance of new vehicle quota shall be discontinued with effect from the 1 July 2023.
The NA has already passed a motion to table the Pay Structure Reform Act 2022 for amendment where one major aim is to bring back vehicle quotas.
In the past, MPs would mainly sell their quota for around Nu 1.5 mn or more, but the quota value now is much higher. In 2019 a MP Prado quota could save a person Nu 3.8 mn in taxes per Prado and a MP would sell the quota for around Nu 1.5 mn or more, but now, the same quota can save Nu 6.1 mn to Nu 7.7 mn per Prado depending on the type of Prado. The quota should be worth double now compared to 2019.
Given that most MPs will sell their quotas, like in the past, the wealth gained for MPs from this simple section will be in the millions each. The country will also lose millions of dollars in foreign reserves in importing Prados which will be imported by the ones buying the MP Prado quotas.
This is while sky-high vehicle taxes from previous governments and inflation have ensured that buying vehicles is a very expensive or impossible proposition for ordinary people.
