Fuel card for government pool vehicles launched

By Tshering

The introduction of fuel card /debit card for Government pool vehicles is one of the many initiatives undertaken by the Ministry of Finance to digitalize the systems with the broad objectives to better manage the Government cash flows and to support the Government’s initiative of moving towards cashless economy.
Finance Minister, Namgay Dorji launched the use of fuel card/debit card for Government pool vehicles using Wi-Fi Point of Sales (POS) on Friday at Tashi Petroleum Distributor, Motithang, Thimphu.
This initiative is also to complement the Wi-Fi POS launched on June 15 this year, by the RMA in collaboration with the Bank of Bhutan Ltd. and the Department of Trade, MoEA for the use of Fuel Card/Debit Card for vehicles.
There are a total number of 2,195 pool vehicles across the Government agencies and about Nu. 300 million is provided for ‘maintenance of vehicles’ annually. Out of the total maintenance budget, about 70% of the budget is used for POL expenses.
This electronic system is expected to facilitate in proper monitoring of the usage of POL for all government pool vehicles and ultimately help to reduce the administrative burden to all government agencies. In the initial phase, the use of fuel card/debit card will be piloted in selected government agencies for dedicated pool vehicles.
Based on the experiences during the pilot phase and also with the roll-out of POS by the banks in other Dzongkhags, the Ministry of Finance will gradually implement the use of POL fuel card/debit card in other budgetary bodies and Dzongkhags.