Hundreds of Bhutanese who set out to buy a Toyota vehicle from India now find themselves stuck. Indian dealers have asked them to produce a “no objection” letter from Bhutan’s authorised Toyota dealer, the State Trading Corporation of Bhutan Limited, STCBL. But the STCBL says it has no authority to issue one. Meanwhile, the Department of Trade says the letter is not needed at all.
For many Bhutanese, a simple plan to buy a Toyota car from India, with the government’s approval already in hand, has run into confusion. After obtaining import approval from the Trade Department, some approached Toyota dealers across the border in Siliguri, West Bengal. Many were seeking Toyota Urban Cruiser Hyryder, a model not sold through the authorised Toyota dealer in Bhutan. But at the dealership, they said, the deal stalled.
Tshering Dorji, one of the buyers, said, “After making all the necessary arrangements to purchase the vehicles, we were informed that a complaint had been filed with Toyota Company from Bhutan. We were told that Toyota Company had instructed them not to sell the vehicles in Bhutan, and as a result, they would not be able to sell the vehicles to us.”
The worry grew after the STCBL recently issued a notification. It said that they were not authorised to issue no-objection letters for direct import from other sources.
“STCB is a trading company; we are not a regulatory authority. We have no authority to issue an objection or no-objection certificate, so most of the customer they deal directly with the Indian supplier. The Indian supplier has asked them to obtain a no-objection certificate from STCB, which was quite shocking, and we are not in a position to issue it as per our dealership agreement with Trade Japan,” said Dechen Wangdi, GM, Toyota Division, STCBL.
For buyers who had already made arrangements, that raised an obvious question. If the STCBL will not issue the letter the Indian dealers are asking for, how can the purchase go ahead?
Through its Facebook page, earlier today, the STCBL also said that it has never lodged any complaint with Indian Toyota dealers or any authorities to stop the sale or import of Toyota vehicles to Bhutanese customers.
So where does that leave the buyers?
The Department of Trade is clear on one point: the no-objection letter is not required. In a written response to BBS, the Department said its import authorisation is enough to bring an approved vehicle into Bhutan. There are no restrictions on a buyer as long as the vehicle matches the approval and all customs, tax, and registration rules are met. The decision to supply or not solely rests with the vehicle manufacturer or principal company.
However, to facilitate the issue, the department has written to the relevant officials of Toyota.
“We have proactively reached out via email to the company’s officials, even inquiring whether they have any objections to supplying these particular variants, which are not supplied or distributed by our Bhutanese dealers in the Bhutanese market, by the authorised legitimate dealers and distributors based outside Bhutan. And we are still awaiting the response from the company, and as soon as we receive the responses via email, we will be able to update,” said Rinchen Lhazom, Chief Trade Officer, Internal Trade Promotion and Facilitation Division, MoICE.
Since January this year, the Trade Department has issued around 691 import approvals from India, of which almost 94 per cent were for Urban Cruiser Hyryder. Many of them have already been imported through the dealer in Siliguri before the issue of requiring the STCBL’s clearance surfaced.
BBS repeatedly tried to contact the Toyota dealer in Siliguri through WhatsApp calls and text messages regarding the issue, but did not get any response.
Meanwhile, from what one of the customers shared with BBS, the dealer is considering supplying vehicles to those customers who already received a tax invoice.
“I repeatedly called them and told them I have a tax invoice with me and I need a car. They told me to wait for two to three days. When I called today, they told me that they will be giving vehicles to those who have received an invoice. But currently, the vehicles are not in stock. They told me that when it comes to the new ones, they will not be able to confirm it.”
For now, those who already hold a tax invoice have at least a hope of owning the Toyota car they ordered. But for those with only an approval, the road ahead is far less clear. For them, their hopes hang on a single reply that the Department of Trade is still awaiting.
Karma Wangdi
Edited by Sonam Wangdi
