Internet café’s charge high: Students

Feb 29, 2012

Internet cafes in the capital are doing a good business these days, downloading and printing results and no objection certificate of the class X and XII students. Visit any internet cafes in Thimphu and you will find it crowded with students. But the students are complaining that the price charged by the internet cafes is very high.

The rate to download and print differs from one café to another. It varies between Nu. 10 to 20 per sheet.“We charge Nu. 15 for downloading and printing of NOC, as it is regular. And we are charging Nu. 20 for classes X and XII results as it is only once in a year. We don’t charge students who come from a poor background and those who fail, because we feel pity on them,” said one of the café’ owners.

However, the students complained that the rate is way too high for them.“As we are from a poor background and unemployed, paying Nu. 15 just to download and print a copy is too much,” says Pema Namgay, a student.

Internet Café owners said this is the only time when they can earn some profit as rest of the days they have to remain without much customers. They said that now most of the people have internet connection at home or on their mobile phones.