The National Council adopted the Natural Resources and Environment Committee’s recommendation on the need for the government to reform the State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in the country. The committee recommended strengthening the existing SOEs and privatizing them. The House, however, did not approve the other four recommendations.
As per the committee’s review report, SOEs have been criticized for being complacent compared to their private-sector counterparts. This is due to less competitive pressures to operate efficiently and effectively.
According to Natural Resources and Environment Committee’s Chairperson Tirtha Man Rai, the private sectors are not able to compete equally with the SOEs.
“We felt that it’s important that the government strengthen the existing SOEs and privatize them. Moreover, as per the review report, we found that many of the SOEs have the same mandates. Thus, we recommend the government to merge SOEs with similar mandates.”
Meanwhile, the recommendations pertaining to exploring possibilities of transferring farm shop to gewog, waiving a certain portion of non-performing outstanding loans and establishing reliable Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants stations at appropriate locations within the radius of 80-100 kilometres were not approved.
The members will hold a plenary session to further discuss the four recommendations. The committee will present the final recommendations for adoption next week.
Sonam Pem & Karma Wangdi
