July 3: Taxi drivers have been talking about this problem over and over again. Civil servants driving taxis are eating into their earnings. Not only that. Civil servant taxi drivers are slashing the rates. If the actual fare is Nu. 100, civil servants driving taxis charge only Nu. 70 to Nu. 80.

The Taxi Tshogpa in Paro said “it doesn’t matter even if they charge less than the normal rate, because this is not their only source of income.”

Passengers prefer to travel with civil servants driving taxis because the rates are cheaper. Regular taxi driver say often they have to quarrel over passengers. They want the concerned officials and authorities to prevent civil servants from driving taxis.

The Royal Civil Service Commission does not allow this. One of its rules states that any activity, private, commercial and additional employment that causes conflict of interest with official duties and responsibilities are not allowed. However, so far the RCSC has not taken any action against any civil servant for failing to abide by the rule.

The Road Safety and Transport Authority (RSTA) says it cannot do anything about this.

A RSTA official said “they wrote letters with the names of the civil servants to the RCSC, but we got no response nor did the RCSC take any action against those people.”

Civil Servants who drive taxis politely refused to comment. A few said they are doing this to supplement their income. It is not confined to the civil service.

Several corporate employees are also engaged in the same activity for the same reason. Some civil servants and corporate employees are also involved in the film industry.