The PMO will recover subsidies for 27 EV taxis that were not delivered or sold to intended recipients under a sustainability project, which aimed to replace 300 fuel-driven taxis with electric vehicles by September 2021. The Bhutan Construction and Transport Authority reported a total of 297 EV taxis as of March 3, compared to the expected 300. However, 27 government-subsidized EV taxis were missing, indicating that these vehicles were never delivered or sold. For these 27 EVs, Kuenphen Motors, one of the project’s primary EV taxi providers, had received subsidies totaling roughly Nu 9.9 million. But according to a company spokesman, the cars were not sold since taxi drivers refused to take them. According to the source, they asked the project management for alternate customers on multiple occasions but never got a clear response. Additionally, Kuenphen Motors said that the delays were caused by the frequent changes in project managers, which made collaboration challenging.
Kuenphen Motors has stated that, notwithstanding the disagreement, it is still prepared to sell the remaining cars under the subsidy as long as it has a verified list of purchasers. After the project was transferred from PMU to DoST, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Chandra Bdr. Gurung declared on March 4 that the government will look into it. March 21 was the date of the complete handover. According to Sonam Tobgye, it was decided that the PMO would settle any unresolved issues and collect subsidies from the car provider during the changeover.