NewsHome MediaNews

The officials from Govtech and DHI made a presentation on the National Digital Identity Bill 2023 to the Members of the National Council today. The functions, background and objectives of the Bill were the highlights of the presentation. The Chairperson of the Social and Cultural Affairs Committee, Hon'ble Tshering Tshomo said that since the NDI Bill was tabled as an Urgent Bill, the SCAC was assigned to review the Bill…....

Led by the Hon'ble Chairperson of the National Council, Members and secretariat officials offered prayers at the ongoing Moenlam Chenmo at Kuenselphodrang today. The week long prayer ceremony will conclude on Sunday, coinciding with Lord Buddha's Parinirvana.....

Led by the Honourable Prime Minister yesterday, the officials from the Office of Cabinet Affairs and Strategic Coordination (OCASC), Cabinet Secretariat, made a presentation on the 13th Five-Year Plan. Outlining the National Goal and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Long-term strategic planning framework, Outcome of KPIs, Outputs, Key activities, and the Way Forward, and the Strategic Objectives of Economic and Social Development, Security, and Governance clusters were also emphasized. Since the…....

A team from the Royal Civil Service Commission led by Hon’ble Commissioner Dr. Ugyen Tshewang made a presentation on the Civil Service Reform to the staff of the National Council secretariat today. The team presented the objectives, outcomes and principles of the Civil Service Reform. They emphasized four core outcomes - which included Leadership Enhancement, Strengthening Governance System, Building Dynamic Civil Servants and the Institution of a robust structure. They…....

The standing committees of the National Council elected its Chairpersons and Deputy Chairpersons according to the National Council Act of Kingdom of Bhutan 2008. The Members of the different committees were constituted during the first plenary of the fourth National Council held on 15th May 2023. Standing Committees of the National Council will examine any matter within the jurisdiction assigned to them by the House. Legislative Committee (LC) 1. Hon’ble…....

The sensitization for the Hon’ble Members organized by National Council Secretariat in Partnership with UNDP and UNICEF concluded today. Eminent Member Hon'ble Ugyen Tshering presented Constitutionalism, Rule of Law and the Parliamentary framework. Additionally, he also presented the disputed Civil Liability Bill 2022 which will be tabled in the Joint Sitting this summer session. The representatives from UNDP presented the Sustainable Development Goals and the role of Parliament. The sessions…....

The National Council secretariat organized a half-day orientation programme for the Hon'ble Members to familiarize them with the mandates of the various divisions, namely the Secretariat Service Division, Information and Communication Division, Legislative and Procedural Division, and Research and Hansard Division. The Members were briefed on the processes involved in law-making, committee functions, and the guidelines pertaining to social media. Furthermore, they were informed about the current practices implemented by…....

The Joint Committee for the Civil Liability Bill of Bhutan 2021 and the Joint Committee for Forest and Nature Conservation Bill of Bhutan 2021 conducted their first meetings. The meeting was conducted to appoint the Chairpersons and the Deputy Chairpersons for the Joint Committees. The Hon’ble Members of the Joint Committee for Civil Liability Bill of Bhutan unanimously elected Hon’ble Passang Dorji (Ph.D), Bartsham Shongphu Demkhong, National Assembly and Hon’ble…....

Presided over by the Chairperson (elect), the 1st Plenary Session commenced with an offering of the traditional Marchang ceremony in the Plenary Hall. The schedule of activities prepared by the Secretariat to orient Hon'ble Members on the diverse thematic areas, followed by the tentative agenda for the 31st session of the national council was also presented. As per the Article 10.11 of the Constitution and Section 145 of the National…....

The Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson of the National Council took the Oath or Affirmation of Secrecy administered by the Chief Justice Chogyal Dago Rigdzin in accordance with Article 10.19 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Bhutan. The prayer ceremony was led by Venerable Tshogi Lopen Sangay Khandu of the Central Monastic Body. The Hon’ble Chairperson Sangay Dorji has a Masters degree in Educational Administration and Management. He served as…....

The Fourth National Council's Hon'ble Members took their Oath or Affirmation of Office in accordance with Article 10.18 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Bhutan. The ceremony was administered by the Chief Justice, Lyonpo Chogyal Dago accompanied by the former Venerable Tshogi Lopen from the Central Monastic Body. The Hon'ble Members also signed a pledge of non-affiliation to political parties and the ceremony concluded with the offering of Zhabten…....

In accordance with the National Council Act of the Kingdom of Bhutan and the Rules of Procedure of the National Council of Bhutan, an election for the post of Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson was conducted today in the session hall. Prior to the election, the nominees were allowed to address the National Council outlining their goals and strategies if elected. There were four candidates for the post of Chairperson and…....

The Members of the Third National Council bid farewell to the office today. In a symbolic demission of office, a solemn prayer ceremony was held in the National Council. The Hon’ble Members led by the Chairperson offered butter lamps to the Kupar of His Majesty The King and paid tribute with the recitation of Zhabten and Tashi Moenlam. The Hon’ble Members and secretariat staff exchanged word of gratitude for the…....

The recently elected members of the National Council presented their certificates of election to the officiating Secretary General of the National Council this morning. During the briefing session, the Thrizin joined by the Dy. Thrizin congratulated the members on the successful elections. They also congratulated the Eminent Members on their recent reappointment by His Majesty The King on the occasion of Zhabdrung Kuchoe. The Hon'ble Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson shared…....

His Excellency, the Hon’ble Chairperson extended a warm welcome to Ms. Lenna Rikkila Tamang, Regional Director and conveyed his appreciation for the support rendered to Parliament under Project Nyamdrel by IDEA. Conversing briefly on the National Council elections, the Hon'ble Chairperson said that the Third National Council tenure will end on 9th May and the newly elected Members will join office on 10th May 2023. The Chairperson said that under…....

Led by the Hon. Chairperson, the Members, and the Secretariat Staff offered prayers at the ongoing Jungwa Chidhoe kurim at Pangrizampa , Thimphu.....

Hon’ble Chairperson, few Members, Offtg. Secretary General and the Secretariat Staff attended a presentation on the draft Strategic Development Plan 2024-2028 for the National Council of Bhutan on 20/1/2023. Mr. Tendel Gyeltshen, Sr. Legislative Officer, presented the content and details of the strategic plan document. The Strategic Plan is prepared as a roadmap and a guiding document for implementation and execution of programs and activities for the next five years.…....

ད་རེས་ སྤྱི་ཚེས་ ༡༤/༡༢/༢༠༢༢ ལུ་ ནང་སྲིད་དང་སྲོལ་འཛིན་ལྷན་ཁག་ སྲོལ་འཛིན་ལས་ཁུངས་ཀྱི་ སྒྲིག་ལམ་སྡེ་ཚན་ནང་ལས་ གཙོ་འཛིན་འཇིགས་མེད་འོད་ཟེར་གྱིས་ རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཚོགས་སྡེའི་ ཆེད་བསྟོད་ཅན་གྱི་འཐུས་མི་དང་ ཡོངས་ཁྱབ་དྲུང་ཆེན་ འགོ་དཔོན་དང་ ལས་བྱེད་ཚུ་ལུ་ སྲོལ་འཛིན་ལས་ཁུངས་ཀྱི་ཁ་ཐུག་ལས་ རྒྱལ་ཁབ་གོང་འཕེལ་གྱི་འགྱུར་བ་དང་འཁྲིལ་ཏེ་ འབྲུག་མི་ཡོངས་ལུ་ ཕན་ཐོག་པའི་རེ་བ་ལུ་དམིགས་ཏེ་ གཞུང་འབྲེལ་བཅའ་སྒྲིག་ལམ་སྟོན་ ཕྱོགས་བསྒྲིགས་འབད་དེ་ཡོད་པའི་ནང་ལས་ སྤྱི་ཚོགས་ལུ་ ཁེ་ཕན་ཆེ་བའི་ དོན་ཚན་རིགས་བཀོད་དེ་ཡོད་མི་ཚུ་ གསལ་སྟོན་ཕུལ་གནངམ་དང་འབྲེལ་ཏེ་ ཆེད་བསྟོད་ཅན་གྱི་འཐུས་མི་རྣམས་དང་ བཅའ་མར་གཏོགས་མི་ཚུ་གི་ བསམ་འཆར་བརྗེད་སོར་དང་ འདྲི་བ་འདྲི་ལན་ཚུ་ཡང་ མཛད་གནང་ཡི། འདི་བཟུམ་གྱི་ དམིགས་བསལ་ཅན་གྱི་ ལས་རིམ་འདི་གིས་ སྤྱིར་བཏང་རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཚོགས་སྡེ་དང་ ལྷག་པར་དུ་ ཆེད་བསྟོད་ཅན་གྱི་འཐུས་མི་ཚུ་ལུ་ ཁེ་ཕན་སྦོམ་སྦེ་ར་བྱུང་སྟེ་ཡོདཔ་ལས་ སྒྲིག་ལམ་སྡེ་ཚན་གྱི་གཙོ་འཛིན་དང་ འགོ་དཔོན་ཡོངས་ལུ་ བཅའ་མར་གཏོགས་མི་ཚུ་གི་ཁ་ཐུག་ལས་ དགའ་འཚོར་ཕུཝ་ཨིན།....

In recognition of the dedicated service of civil servants, Hon’ble Member Tashi Chhozom and 14 secretariat officials were awarded medals by the Hon’ble Chairperson today as per the Civil Service Rules & Regulations. The award recipients were as follows; Hon’ble Member Tashi Chhozom- Gold Medal Mr. Pema Y. Rinzin - Gold Medal Mr. Thinley Wangchuk - Silver Medal Mr. Sonam Phuntsho - Silver Medal Mr. Tshering Dorji- Bronze Medal Ms.…....

Today the Hon’ble Chairperson, Members, and Secretary General visited Dechenphu and Tashichodzong to offer prayers of gratitude for the successful conclusion of the 30th Session of the National Council. The National Council pays a visit to these two sacred places before the commencement and after the closing of every session.....

The 30th Session of the National Council concluded today with the offering of Zhabten to His Majesty The King. In the closing remarks, His Excellency the Hon’ble Chairperson Tashi Dorji said that although it is the last session for the Members of the Third National Council, the Members have time and opportunity until 9th May, 2023, to continue to serve the people and the nation. He gave his assurances that…....

The 19th Sitting of the National Council resumed with the re-deliberation of the Civil Liability Bill of Bhutan 2022. The Bill was presented to the House as a Private Member’s Bill during the 29th session of the National Council. The Bill was then forwarded to the National Assembly. The National Assembly deliberated on the Bill during the ongoing session and made 170 amendments. The Bill was re-submitted to the National…....

The Good Governance Committee proposed the Pay Structure Reform Bill of Bhutan 2022 for adoption. While deliberating the Bill yesterday, the House reverted disputed sections to discuss during the committee’s internal meeting by involving relevant Members. The committee incorporated the comments raised by the Members on the allowance-related clauses and presented the Bill for adoption. The Bill was adopted with 19 ‘Yes’ and 2 ‘Abstain’ of 21 Members present and…....

Today, the House deliberated on the Pay Structure Reform Bill of Bhutan 2022 after the introduction of the Bill by the Finance Minister yesterday. The National Assembly adopted the Bill on 24/11/2022 and forwarded it to the National Council for deliberation according to the Public Finance (Amendment) Act 2012. The Bill was assigned to the Good Governance Committee (GGC) for further review, wherein the Chairperson of the GGC presented the…....

The Finance Minister, Lyonpo Namgay Tshering introduced the Pay Structure Reform Bill of Bhutan 2022 today. The Bill was deliberated and passed by the National Assembly and forwarded as a Money Bill to the National Council as per the Public Finance (Amendment) Act of Bhutan 2012. Introducing the Bill, His Excellency informed that the reform is not a pay revision but a reform in the pay structure of the public…....

Hon'ble Member, Lhaki Dolma asked what the reasons were behind the policy of disallowing construction and infrastructure development in the red and green zone areas, as it is a concern for the people owning land in these zones, while there is an exception for Government structures. Moreover, she added that Parliament had also passed a resolution, but there was no change in policy. Therefore, why hasn't the Government upheld and…....

The 13th Sitting of the National Council resumed with the deliberation of the Property Tax Bill of Bhutan 2022. The Bill was introduced to the House by the Hon’ble Finance Minister yesterday. Hon’ble Ugyen Tshering of Paro Dzongkhag, Chairperson of the Economics Affairs Committee informed the House that the Committee made few amendments to the Bill. He said that the Committee retained 35 sections of the total 38 sections amended…....

In the first half of the 12th Sitting of the National Council, the House adopted the Civil Service Reform Bill of Bhutan 2022, the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (TIP), and the Tax Bill of Bhutan 2022. The Legislative Committee presented the Civil Service Reform Bill of Bhutan 2022 for adoption with a…....

Lyonpo Namgay Tshering, the Minister of Finance introduced the Property Tax Bill of Bhutan 2022, to the House today. The National Assembly deliberated and passed the Bill yesterday and forwarded it to the National Council. The Bill was submitted to Parliament as a Money Bill. The Hon’ble Minister highlighted its background and aims. He said that the Bill aims to resolve several ambiguities and biases of the Revised Taxation Policy…....

The Good Governance Committee's Chairperson, Hon'ble Nima presented the overview of the Anti-Corruption Commission’s Annual Report. He said that this is the 15th Annual Report submitted to the Druk Gyalpo, Prime Minister, and Parliament in accordance with Article 27(4) of the Constitution and Section 169(1) of the Anti-Corruption Act of Bhutan 2011. He said that the report covered the Prevention of Corruption; Complaints and Referrals; Investigation of Corrupt Acts; Overall…....

Lyonpo Namgay Tshering, Minister of Finance introduced the Tax Bill of Bhutan 2022 to the National Council today. The National Assembly deliberated and passed the Bill on November 18, 2022 and forwarded to the National Council. The Bill was submitted to Parliament as a Money Bill. Introducing the Bill, Hon’ble Lyonpo presented the background, objectives, and the areas of proposed tax revision. He said that the Bill aims to address…....

Today the 8th sitting of the National Council resumed with the deliberation on the Civil Service Reform Bill of Bhutan 2022 which was introduced by the Hon’ble Prime Minister yesterday. The Bill was reviewed and presented to the House by the Legislative Committee. The Chairperson of the Legislative Committee, Hon’ble Dhan Kumar Sunwar of Tsirang Dzongkhag informed the House that the Committee retained most of the amendments made by the…....

Officials from the Pay Commission and the Ministry of Finance lead by the Cabinet Secretary and Acting Finance Secretary made a comprehensive presentation on the Pay Structure Reform Bill of Bhutan 2022 to the Good Governance Committee of the National Council. Apart from the Committee Members, other Members also attended the meeting and participated in its discussion. The presentation covered the objectives and principles, current issues and summary of the…....

Hon’ble Prime Minister introduced the Civil Service Reform Bill of Bhutan 2022 to the House today. The Bill is presented to Parliament as an Urgent Bill. Introducing the Bill, His Excellency said that the reform initiative is to restructure and reorganize the existing agencies for effective and efficient civil service. He said that the Bill will impact around 46 legislations ranging from minor name changes to repealing certain provisions including…....

In the afternoon of the 7th Sitting, His Excellency Yeshey Penjor, Minister of Agriculture and Forests attended a question time session of the National Council. Hon’ble Anand Rai of Sarpang Dzongkhag asked the Hon’ble Minister on the production trend of cereal crops. He said that the production of cereal crops like rice, maize, wheat, millet and barley decreased despite the government’s effort in pursuing self-reliance. Quoting the Agriculture Statistics from…....

Led by the Acting Secretary, the officials from the MoF made presentations on the Draft Tax Bill 2022 and the Proposed Property Tax Bill to the EAC today. The background, objectives, areas of proposed tax revision, and impact analysis were the highlights of the presentation. The Tax Bill 2022 proposes to amend existing Customs Duty, Sales Tax, and Green Tax Rates. Apart from the Members of EAC, the Hon’ble Chairperson…....

Today, during the 6th Sitting of the National Council, His Excellency Ugyen Dorji, Minister for Home and Cultural Affairs introduced the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (TIP Protocol). The Hon’ble Minister said that while globalization and technological advancement have immensely benefitted social and economic development, associated challenges with specific reference to terrorism…....

The Natural Resources and Environment Committee (NREC) of the National Council presented the Forest and Nature Conservation Bill of Bhutan 2021 for deliberation. The Bill was passed by the National Assembly in its 7th Session of Third Parliament. Hon’ble Dorji Khandu, Chairperson of the Committee presented the highlights of the stakeholder’s consultations and internal meetings held over the past six month in the process of review. He informed the House…....

The Minister for Agriculture and Forests, His Excellency Yeshi Penjore introduced the Forest and Nature Conservation Bill of Bhutan 2021 in the National Council this morning. The Hon’ble Minister informed the House that the National Assembly repealed 6 sections and inserted 9 new sections to the proposed Forest and Nature Conservation Bill submitted by the Ministry during its deliberation in the last session. He said that the Bill contains 11…....

Today, coinciding with the auspicious 15th Day of the 9th Month of the Bhutanese Calendar, Hon’ble Chairperson of the National Council of Bhutan received the Royal Kasho from the Golden Throne and read to the Members on the historic Gyalsung Bill of the Kingdom of Bhutan 2022. As per the command of His Majesty, Dasho (Dr.) Sonam Kinga, a member of the National Service Core Working Group, introduced the Gyalsung…....

H.E Tashi Dorji, the Chairperson, and the Members of the National Council attended the introduction of the historic Gyalsung Bill of the Kingdom of Bhutan 2022 at the first sitting of the National Assembly as an audience today. The Hon’ble Speaker read the sacred Royal Kasho, followed by the introduction of the momentous Bill by Dasho Dr. Sonam Kinga (a member of the National Service Core Working Group) as per…....

Corresponding to the Eleventh Day of the Ninth Month of the Water Male Tiger Year, the 30th Session of the National Council commenced today with the Zhugdrel Phunsum Tshogpai Tendrel followed by the opening address delivered by His Excellency Tashi Dorji, the Chairperson of the National Council. His Excellency welcomed the delegates to the session and expressed greetings to all the viewers of the Bhutan Broadcasting Service and social media…....

Recently, I met a 27-year-old woman who has a four-year-old son. She works in a café, and makes Nu. 12,500 a month. Her house rent is Nu. 7,750. She is her family’s sole breadwinner. I was dismayed to hear about her struggles supporting her family and trying to make ends meet. Thimphu is seen as a place of opportunities for our youth. But the young people I met in Thimphu…....

The Interim Secretary General of the National Council Secretariat (NCS), Mr. Tenzin Thinley, paid a courtesy call to the Hon’ble Chairperson today. According to the appointment order of the Royal Civil Service Commission, Mr. Tenzin Thinley joined as an Interim Secretary General of the NCS on 28th November 2022. Before joining as the Interim Secretary General, he served as the Director General of the Department of Youth and Sports under…....

Today, the National Council(NC) convened its Pre-Session Meeting in preparation for the 30th session. Apart from the issues reported previously, the NC will table the Civil Service Reform Bill as an urgent Bill. As proposed by the Speaker of the National Assembly, the Chairperson of the NC directed the Legislative Committee for further analysis. The Legislative Committee, ensuing in-depth study, considered the Bill as an urgent Bill. Tomorrow, the Opening…....

The Deputy Chairperson/Media Spokesperson of the National Council (NC) briefed the Media firms on the following Bills, International Conventions, and Annual Report that the House will deliberate and adopt in the upcoming session; The Forest and Nature Conservation Bill of Bhutan 2021 Civil Service Reform Bill of Bhutan 2022 United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children…....

On the joyous occasion of the 14th Coronation Day of His Majesty The Druk Gyalpo, the Chairperson, Members, and the Secretariat Staff of the National Council offered Prayers and Zhabten for long life, good health, and glorious reign of His Majesty The King. We submit our profound gratitude for extraordinary commitments in light of navigating the Nation to greater heights of Harmony, Security, and Stability. May the people of Bhutan…....

Led by the Hon. Chairperson, the Members and the Secretariat Staffs offered prayers at Dechenphu and Tashichhodzong today. This is in view of the successful conduct of the 30th session of the National Council, which will commence on 4th November 2022.....

ད་རིས་ སྐལ་བཟང་གི་ཉིནམ་དང་འབྲེལ་ དྲིན་ཅན་རྩ་བའི་བླ་མ་ ༧སྐྱབས་རྗེ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་འཇིགས་མེད་ཆོས་གྲགས་མཆོག་གིས་དབུ་བཞུགས་ཐོག་ལས་ ཀུན་གསལ་ཕོ་བྲང་སྟོན་པ་རྡོར་གདན་མའི་སྐུ་མདུན་ལུ་ ཀུན་མཁྱེན་པདྨ་དཀར་པོའི་གསུང་འབུམ་གྱི་ལྗགས་ལུང་གནང་སར་ འབྲུག་གི་རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་ཚོགས་སྡེའི་ མི་རྗེ་ཁྲི་འཛིན་གྱིས་གཙོས་པའི་ ཆེད་བསྟོད་ཅན་གྱི་འཐུས་མི་ཡོངས་དང་ དྲུང་ཆེན་ཡིག་ཚང་གི་ལས་བྱེདཔ་ཚུ་གིས་ དད་མོས་རྣམ་དག་གི་སྒོ་ལས་ ཕྱག་དང་སྨོན་འདེབས་ཕུལ་གནང་ཡི། དཔལ་ལྡན་འབྲུག་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབུ་ཁྲིད་དམ་པ་ སྐྱབས་རྗེ་རྗེ་མཁན་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཞབས་ལས་ རང་ལུགས་གནམ་ལོ་ཆུ་ཕོ་སྟག་ལོ་ རང་ཟླ་ ༨ པའི་ཚེས་ ༡༤ ལུ་ མགོན་པོའི་ཚོགས་འཁོར་གནང་སྟེ་ ཚེས་ ༡༥ ལས་ འགོ་བཙུགས་ ཟླ་ངོ་གཅིག་གི་རིང་ལུ་ དཔལ་འབྲུག་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ སྐྱབས་མགོན་ངག་དབང་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་མཆོག་གི་ སྐུ་གོང་མ་ཀུན་མཁྱེན་པདྨ་དཀར་པོའི་ བཀའ་འབུམ་ཡོངས་རྫོགས་ཀྱི་ལྗགས་ལུང་ཞུ་མི་ ཉིན་བསྟར་བཞིན་དུ་ དད་མོས་ཅན་གྱི་མི་སེར་ སྟོང་ཕྲག་ལས་བཅད་དེ་ འཛོམས་དོ་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན།....

Members of the Good Governance Committee and Social and Cultural Affairs Committee of the National Council attended a day long advocacy and strategy workshop on 'Reflecting on our gender commitments towards Agenda 2030' at Paro. The workshop was organized by BNEW and Sabah Bhutan in collaboration with NCWC.....