RAA rejects trade department’s submission

Cheten Dupchu, Thimphu
Jan 4 2016

The Royal Audit Authority (RAA) has not accepted the trade department’s submission. RAA says the department’s response is inapplicable. The department will still need to recover the inadmissible amount of over Nu112 M collected as home delivery charges by the three LPG distributors from 1999-2014.

The Department of Trade had written it would not be possible to recover the home delivery charges as directed. “LPG dealer commission was declared on composite basis, which included all expenses of the distributors,” it had written.

“Consumers have been charged for home delivery till November 2014 for the last 15 years,” said RAA’s Assistant Auditor General, Sonam Tobgay. He said even though there was no home delivery, consumers were charged Nu 18 per ever refill.

The Department of Trade fixed the price, without including home delivery charges on November 2014.

Sonam Tobgay said, from the department’s response, the petroleum, oil, and lubricants distributors in India had two classifications: home delivery being applicable to those distributors who made the sale of around 2000 cylinders a month. It was not applicable to those who sold around 8000 a month.

“If we are to strictly follow the Indian pricing model, we feel their stands are not valid because even by our own working on average, our distributors are making sale of 40,000 refills per month. So they should be falling under the category of 8000 refill per month,” said Sonam Tobgay.

The Royal Audit Authority said the follow up report has been submitted to the National Council. As the audit was requested by the Council, the Royal Audit Authority said it depends on how the Upper House will pass the directives.