Samdrupjongkhar, east Bhutan (Kuensel/ANN) - Begum, a 40-year-old Indian woman, is at the Bhutan Oil Corporation fuel station in Samdrupjongkhar town with four empty cooking oil containers.
She is from the adjoining township of Daranga in Assam and has come to buy kerosene. She held two 10-litre pink coupons issued by the regional trade and industry office and Nu 300(US$6) neatly rolled between her fore and middle finger.
She showed the coupon to Tashi Phuntsho, kerosene in-charge at the fuel depot, near the Bhutan post office. Without saying a word Tashi Phuntsho went inside the office with the coupons and entered it in a register.
Begum carried coupons issued in the name of two Bhutanese, Chencho and Kinzang. Begum said the coupons were given to her by a housewife in the town for whom she helps with household work.
"This time I bought the 10 litre coupons for Nu 50 each," Begum, a mother of two, said. "Sometimes I'm given coupon in exchange of my service. But I work for three households in a day."
After five minutes a 13-yearold girl, Chunu, came to the kerosene depot with two 10 litre coupons also issued in the names of two Bhutanese.
Chunu works for a canteen in Samdrupjongkhar town and her parents run a small momo shop in Daranga. Kerosene is used mostly for cooking.
"I work in the canteen during the day and I ask them for a kerosene coupon in return sometimes," she said. "My parents can't afford to buy kerosene in India for cooking momo in the shop."
Kerosene costs Nu 26-30 a litre in Daranga whereas it is Nu 14.19 a litre in Samdrupjongkhar. This is because Bhutan imports kerosene from India as a quota item which is given at a subsidised rate.
In the border towns a Bhutanese above 18 years is entitled to 10 litres of kerosene a month and must produce a xerox copy of the citizenship identity card. An Indian national having a valid work permit is entitled to five litres a month.
Residents in Samdrupjongkhar obtain coupons from the regional trade and industry office.
The kerosene in-charge at the depot said kerosene is sold to those who come with the valid coupon, which was introduced by the ministry several years ago to curtail widescale deflection of the fuel to the Indian market. He said they do not look at nationality as long as the coupon is a valid one.
"In a day we sell at least 700 litres to Indians possessing coupons in the names of Bhutanese," kerosene in-charge Tashi Phuntsho said. "We never ask who they are buying it for and how they got the coupon."
In 2010, Samdrupjongkhar lifted 156,000 litres almost every month from Guwahati, 90 kms away. Last year it dropped to 144,000 litres a month.
Of this 108,000 litres a month is the requirement quoted by three plaster of paris factories. They pay Nu 14.19 a litre plus a 50 per cent surcharge, a rate fixed by the government, to the trade office. A Bhutan Oil Corporation officials said kerosene that comes to Samdrupjongkhar does not fall under commercial category, which is why the rate for commercial use was less than in Thimphu where it is Nu 33 a litre.
Another 3,000 litres is supplied to Pemagatsel, 30,000 to Mongar and remaining issued to 11 gewogs of Samdrupjongkhar of which Lauri gewog, which does not have electricity lifts more than 3,000 litres a month. Although 108,000 litres is the quoted quantity of factories not all of it is lifted every month. Around 30,000 litres remains un-lifted in a month which is added with the next month's stock.
Regional trade and industry director Karma Drukpa said that until 2010 Gomdar gewog lifted 19,000 litres but when officials were informed of a black market a distribution system was introduced. After that it dropped to 6,000 litres a month.
"What ever quantity they lift from the depot it has to pass through Pinchina check point (Charkilo)," he said. "Otherwise the gewog distributor would be charged."
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