The Mini Dry Port (MDP) stockyard in Gelegphu is now equipped with a weighbridge. Truckers ferrying aggregates and boulders to Assam and Bangladesh will no longer have to visit the Custom weighbridge station for weighing their consignment after loading from the MDP stockyard anymore. Located below the new petrol pump along the Gelegphu-Sarpang highway at the new Industrial Service Centre in Gelegphu, the 100 MT weighbridge was inaugurated yesterday.
Exporters say access to the weighbridge at the MDP boulders and aggregates stockyard has made work easier for their drivers without having to visit the Custom weighbridge located near the Bhutan-India border gate in Gelegphu. In the past drivers have to take their vehicle after loading from the MDP stockyard to the Custom weighbridge station for weighing and return to the MDP for processing export paperwork.
Since export documents are processed at the MDP for ferrying boulders and aggregates to Assam and Bangladesh, truckers and exporters are pleased with the weighing bridge at the MDP.
We are happy to have this weighbridge inaugurated. It was a facility long overdue. This is one facility where exporters would be guided in terms of exporting the real quantity. In the past, it was one issue the government agency was worried about exporters under-declaring or sometimes over declaring. Once this weighbridge is functional the actual quantity would be determined through this weighing system. There would be a lesser chance of manipulation of the rate,” said Rinzin Dorji, an Exporter in Gelegphu.
The Regional Office of Bhutan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) in Gelegphu installed the weighbridge.
“Exporters could keep the exact record of quantities being exported and will have knowledge of paying the tax. Mines and minerals are public properties and government could learn how many quantities are being exported and whether the number of export quantities was received or not,” said Kesang, from the BCCI in Gelegphu.
The new weighbridge is being installed at the cost of Nu 2 M under the BCCI Transitional Support Project fund. Most of the aggregates are being exported to Assam. And the export to Bangladesh is yet to pick up with only few truckloads of boulders being exported to Bangladesh at present.
Karma Wangdi
