Certificate of Merit in Sales Tax Assessment:

Upon appointment as Sales Tax Inspector under Regional Revenue and Customs Office, Thimphu with effect from 1^st July, 2008, I feel, I had the most of the opportunities unlike some of my friends from the same training cohort. I was young and full of energy and enthusiasm to learn and explore more each day. I had the opportunity to lead a team to carry out sales tax assessment of sales tax collecting agents (STCAs) under Thimphu region when most of the senior officers were on study leave. Being single was yet another advantage and opportunity for me as I could go on assessment where ever the office wants to send as I did not had any family obligations unlike my other colleagues in the office.

Since I was appointed under Sales Tax Section, unlike other colleagues, I had the opportunity to work with other sections like Direct Tax Administration, Customs and Excise Section and Revenue and Auditing Sections as well. It was mostly during any field assessment or inspection where people refrain from going to and also most of the colleagues were female. I had this opportunity to go out in the field like tobacco and illicit liquor inspection with customs official, revenue auditing of Punatshangchu Hydro Project with revenue and auditing team and business income tax collection for lump sum basis with team from direct tax administration.

During my last six years in the department I have had the opportunity to attain numerous training abroad and within the country specially to enhance the learnings of tax auditing. I would also like to share that the first sales tax assessment/auditing of  hotel Taj Tashi was assessed by my team in the year 2010. With first-hand experience on varieties of diverse business units in the country, I also had the opportunity to be a team of assessing one of the FDI hospitality industry in Bhutan. The result from this assessment was extra ordinary compared to other assessments carried out earlier as there was huge findings of additional sales tax amounting in millions. The team was led by my section head Mr. Sherab Chogyal (Assisstant Collecter then) from whom I learned many skills required to carry out auditing in complex high end hospitality business units.

It was then the recognition of “Certificate of Merit” from the department was awarded by the Regional Director to the team on 16^th December 2011 for exemplary tax assessment carried out without fear and being bias.