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News and Press Release from Ministry of Finance

Press Release on Launch of electronic Government Vehicle Quota System (e-VQS). (05-July-2021)

The system of providing foreign vehicle quota was introduced in the 1980s, at a time when public transport, buses and taxis were almost non-existent. The main objective was to facilitate the import of foreign vehicles for public servants and to minimize the pressure on limited number of Government pool vehicles. It was also aimed at easing the mobility of the public servants while conducting their official duty and to standardize the import of foreign vehicles into the country.

The civil servants and public servants in P3 level and above are entitled for a vehicle quota, free of customs duty and sales tax exempted up to a ceiling of Nu.0.800 million after every 7 years of import. With the Pay Revision Act 2019 civil servants and public servants vehicle quota has been provided with an option of monetized amount of Nu.0.250 million or a monetized amount of Nu.0.350 million on purchase of an electric vehicle.

With the introduction of e-PEMS, the monetized amount for the vehicle quota has been directly credited to the beneficiary’s Bank account, however for the vehicle quota, the beneficiary had to bring along the original documents to avail the quota.

Starting from 1st July, 2021 MoF launches the online system called electronic Government Vehicle Quota System (e-VQS) to provide the vehicle quota online to enhance public service delivery and harness the advantages of digitalization especially during the pandemic situation. This is in addition to the following initiatives of the Government:

  1. e-PEMS (electronic Public Expenditure Management System),
  2. e-DATS (electronic Daily Allowance and Travel System),
  3. e-GP (electronic Government Procurement), and
  4. BETA Apps (BIT Estimated Tax Apps).

This is an important milestone towards embracing ICT to eliminate routine manual and clerical tasks. With the e-QVS in place, it is expected to greatly reduce administrative burden and improve public service delivery through reduced turnaround time.

The system has been developed in-housed, on an open source technology and deployed at the Government Data Center (GDC). The system is easy to use, as it has been developed in a simpler way keeping in mind the different level of users, it will cater to. The MoF will be updating the e-QVS from time to time, to respond to the rapid pace of change and technology to deliver greater effectiveness and efficiency. 

The electronic Government Vehicle Quota System (e-VQS) can be availed through http://evq.mof.gov.bt/

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Press Release (21-April-2021)

  • The Royal Civil Service Commission and the Ministry of Finance has jointly launched the piloting of Cluster Finance Services in Bumthang on 20th April, 2021.
  • The joint launch was attended by Hon’ble Finance Secretary and Hon’ble Focal Commissioner for MoF, Royal Civil Service Commission.
  • The Cluster Finance Services is the collaborative initiative of the Royal Civil Service Commission and the Ministry of Finance.
  • The objective of this initiative is based on the concept of sharing of services by leveraging the use of ICT.
  • It will bring together all finance personnel working in various regional/autonomous/branch offices under one cluster office in each region/Dzongkhag. However, this initiative does not include the Finance Sections of the Dzongkhag administration.
  • All finance services would be catered from the office of Cluster Finance Services irrespective of the location of the agencies.
  • The initiative will optimize and rationalize the deployment of finance personnel and eliminate the current practice of their placement in individual agencies and achieve the objective of doing more with less.
  • This initiative is expected to enhance prudent fiscal discipline through proper check and control mechanism, and institute adequate internal control system in the agencies.
  • It is also expected to improve the performance and delivery of finance services through enhanced efficiency of finance personnel and standardized service delivery across agencies.
  • The Cluster Finance Services is expected to contribute towards restructuring the budget process and financial norms as enshrined in the Royal Kasho on Civil Service Reform.
  • This initiative was also launched for the regional offices under Paro Dzongkhag on 8th April 2021. It will be implemented on pilot basis for regional offices under Bumthang and Paro Dzongkhags until June this year and will be rolled out in Thimphu and other Dzongkhags in a phased manner from July 2021.
  • The pilot initiative is being carried out with the financial support of multi-donor fund (MDF) contributed by the European Union (EU) and Austrian Development Agency (ADA), and administered by the World Bank (WB).

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Press Release (09-April-2021)

  • The Ministry of Finance in coordination with the Royal Civil Service Commission has launched the piloting of Cluster Finance Services in Paro and Bumthang Dzongkhags.
  • Hon’ble Finance Minister, Lyonpo Namgay Tshering graced the launch event at Paro on 8th April, 2021.
  • This initiative is carried out as a part of overall public financial management (PFM) reforms to strengthen fiscal discipline and to provide efficient finance and accounting services in budgetary bodies.
  • The objective of this initiative is based on the concept of sharing of services.
  • It will bring together all finance personnel working in various regional/autonomous/branch offices under one cluster office in each region/Dzongkhag. However, this initiative does not include the Finance Sections of the Dzongkhag administration.
  • All finance services would be catered from the office of Cluster Finance Services irrespective of the location of the agencies.
  • The initiative will optimize and rationalize the deployment of finance personnel and eliminate the current practice of their placement in individual agencies.
  • This initiative is expected to enhance prudent fiscal discipline through proper check and control mechanism, and institute adequate internal control system in the agencies.
  • It is also expected to improve the performance and delivery of finance services through enhanced efficiency of finance personnel and standardized service delivery across agencies.
  • This initiative will be implemented on pilot basis for regional offices under Paro and Bumthang Dzongkhags until June this year and will be rolled out in Thimphu and other Dzongkhags in a phased manner from July 2021.
  • The pilot initiative is being carried out with the financial support of multi-donor fund (MDF) contributed by the European Union (EU) and Austrian Development Agency (ADA), and administered by the World Bank (WB).

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Dedicated Civil Service Award (16-Dec-2020)

The Annual Royal Civil Service Award 2020 of the Ministry of Finance was held on December 14, 2020. The award ceremony was graced by Hon’ble Dasho Secretary, Ministry of Finance.

The award ceremony was conducted to fulfill the noble wishes of His Majesty the Druk Gyalpo to recognize the utmost dedication and loyalty of civil servants and their outstanding contribution to the TSA-Wa-Sum. It was also to remind them of their greater responsibilities that they need to shoulder for the nation. For this year, there were total of 244 medal and certificate recipients in the following categories:

1.     Lifetime Service Award – 25 recipients.

2.     Gold Medal for 30 years Service- 12 recipients

3.    Silver Medal for 20 years Service -42

4.     Bronze Medal for 10 Service -165

The Ministry would like to congratulate and convey our heartfelt wishes to each award recipient for their commitment, hard work and dedication to Tsa-Wa-Sum.

Recipients of Life Time Civil Service Award with Hon’ble Finance Secretary
Recipients of Gold Medal Civil Service Award with Hon’ble Finance Secretary
Recipients of Silver Medal Civil Service Award with Hon’ble Finance Secretary
Recipients of Bronze Medal Civil Service Award with Hon’ble Finance Secretary
Recipients of Bronze Medal Civil Service Award with Hon’ble Finance Secretary
Recipients of Bronze Medal Civil Service Award with Hon’ble Finance Secretary
Recipients of Bronze Medal Civil Service Award with Hon’ble Finance Secretary
Recipients of Bronze Medal Civil Service Award with Hon’ble Finance Secretary
Recipients of Bronze Medal Civil Service Award with Hon’ble Finance Secretary
Recipients of Bronze Medal Civil Service Award with Hon’ble Finance Secretary

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Transfer of Surplus to RGoB for Financial Year 2019-2020

The RMA transferred Nu. 2,001 million as surplus to the Royal Government of Bhutan on 29th October, 2020. The RMA closed the books of accounts for the Financial Year 2019-2020 with a surplus of Nu. 1,769,391,841.67. Given the current situation of the Government experiencing decline in the revenue due to the pandemic, the RMA management and staff voluntarily surrendered performance linked incentives of Nu.15.20 million and retained earnings of Nu.216.40 million for the financial year 2019-2020 totaling to Nu.2,001 million as surplus transferred to Royal Government of Bhutan.

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