1 TRANSLATION OF THE PROCEEDINGS AND ... - APFA News

high taxes, and those with low income would pay lower amounts and those with
no incomes would not have to pay any taxes. Thus it would greatly benefit in
the equitable distribution of wealth. The Minister reminded the members that
therefore, it must be kept in mind that such a system being introduced by the
government is nothing shocking.
As proposed by the Punakha Chimi the Assembly resolved that article 1(e) on
page 2 would be made 1(f) and 1(e) would specify “the Ministry of Finance
would include a report on income tax in its Budget Report Presentation to the
National Assembly every year”.
The Finance Minister said that as may be known to all the members, His
Majesty the King has repeatedly commanded that taxation on the Bhutanese
people should be in accordance with the law. Therefore, till now the Royal
Family, Ministers and all the Bhutanese people, irrespective of wealth or social
status, have been paying taxes as per the law, be it in business or commerce or
any other activity. Hereafter, too, PIT would be liable without exception on all
taxable incomes be they Ministers, Royal Family or anyone else. Further, the
authority to decide upon the sales and business tax as well as its rates would be
with the National Assembly and not the Ministry of Finance and as submitted
by the people, henceforth the Ministry of Finance would present a report with
regard to taxes in the National Assembly every year.
The Minister pointed out that once the personal income tax is endorsed by the
National Assembly it would be liable on all Bhutanese people with taxable
incomes. Other countries, when they introduced the personal income tax in the
past did not have any experience or example to learn from and later had to face
many related problems and difficulties. Whereas, Bhutan, starting at the right
time has the opportunity to review, observe and learn from many experiences
around and the world and formulate the most appropriate and relevant system
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