Thinley Namgay

To promote sports in the country, the government will come with major tax reforms in the corporate sector, according to finance minister, Namgay Tshering.

Corporate sectors, especially the financial institutions keep significant amount of budget for the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities and the government has asked the Royal Monetary Authority to relook into it, the minister said.

“Financial institutions are investing CSR fund to improve financial literacy and capacity development of private sectors. We requested them to diversify CSR activities.”

In the recently concluded 13th South Asian Games (SAG) in Nepal, Bhutanese athletes bagged 20 medals comprising of seven silver and 13 bronze.

Prime Minister Dr Lotay Tshering said the medalists of SAG were recognised. “In the social media platforms, it was mentioned that there is no support from the government for athletes. We have actually revised the prize for all the medalists and all were awarded, but no one is reflecting this,” said Lyonchhen. “I met all the medalist and told them to work hard as we have not reached the level where our individual sportsman can make a living out of it.”

The national football team (U23) who bagged silver medal at SAG, Lyonchhen said, were given “five figure” rewards. “They would have got five to six million individually if it was at the Olympics,” said Prime Minister. “Our footballers and some athletes are participating in regional level at present and within a few years, we hope to see them performing at the international level.”

Lyonchhen also said that within a few decades, significant progress had been made in the sports sectors and the government has full support in it. “It is also a source of healthy living and society building.”