Economy

Possible green tax casts its shadow

Many Bhutanese are concerned about the rupee taskforce’s…

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Government sets two-year goal for vegetable self-sufficiency

As much as it has threatened the Bhutanese economy, rupee crunch has generated opportunities to make Bhutan self-sufficient. Ministry of Agriculture and Forests (MoAF), for instance, is working on making Bhutan self-sufficient in vegetables within two years from now. Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) will not facilitate rupee payments for vegetable imports from May 19, according [...]

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Government aims to reform licensing policy

Ministry of Economic Affairs (MoEA) and International Finance Corporation are working towards streamlining business registration and regulation aimed at saving US$ 1 million in compliance costs for local businesses and boosting foreign investment in Bhutan. Under the programme, the ministry will formulate a new policy for licensing reforms to reduce the burden of compliance on [...]

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DHI seeks business partnership with private sector

Business projects that have a minimum investment outlay of Nu 100 million and a rational business model with a reasonable rate of return can partner with Druk Holding and Investments (DHI), according to the new DHI-Private Sector Partnership (DPP) framework. Having received several proposals for partnership with the domestic private sector, DHI has developed a [...]

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Microfinance in the offing

It is expected to boost agriculture There is good news in store for the agriculture sector and the rural poor. Bhutan’s central bank, Royal Monetary Authority (RMA), has received five applications for the establishment of microfinance institutions in the country. Microfinance means provision of financial services, such as small loans, to poor people or new [...]

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Poor country rich people syndrome

It is only in Bhutan that the Central Bank takes overdrafts at 10 percent to bail out private consumption, says the RMA governor The Central Bank has been borrowing rupee by availing itself of overdraft facilities not to pay off government loans or to fund government expenditures, but to bail out increasing private consumption, said [...]

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Thinking beyond the GDP economics

Bhutan’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) might have grown well over 11 percent in 2010, but what good does it do if it does not account for the country’s wealth in the GNH sense? To bring about a more comprehensive method of accounting system in line with the GNH philosophy, GNH Commission and the National Statistics [...]

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How Bhutan’s dependence on Indian workers drain rupee

Bhutan today is hiring at least 55,551 workers from India The rupee crisis in the country has brought to light another side of Bhutan’s dependence on India. The country’s booming construction industry is heavily dependent on India for workers. Ministry of Labour and Human Resources recently reported that Bhutan is currently hiring 55,551 Indian workers. [...]

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Vehicles that transported rupee

One of the main factors that triggered the ongoing rupee crisis in the country was excess transport loans from financial institutions. Over the years, financial institutions in the country have been increasingly lending to the transport sector. From a total of Nu 1,241.05 million in 2008, the total loan amount dished out to the transport [...]

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Credit fuelled the rupee crunch, says task force report

The government is taking measures to cut down unnecessary imports from India to ease the rupee crunch. It has learnt that the crunch is caused by excessive imports from India fueled by excessive loans from the financial institutions in the country. The task force set up to study the rupee crunch last week submitted a [...]

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