Stung owners plea for rollback

Stung owners plea for rollback Home minister says he will relay concerns to Cabinet New Timings 11 January, 2011 - With a claim that the new closing time for discotheques government introduced last month has crippled their business, about 11 discotheque owners approached the home minister yesterday. The owners from Thimphu, Paro and Phuentsholing requested home minister Minjur Dorji to reinstate the previous closing time that was 2 am. On December 16, a notification informed them to close their establishments by midnight. They said the notification came as an absolute shock, since it was issued without any consultation with them. Many said they incurred about 70 percent loss ever since the new timing was introduced. With the clubs operating late, the new rule shortened the time for visitors to hang out in discotheques. This, the owners said, dissuaded customers from coming in, depriving them of entry fees, which was one of their main income source. “Who’d want to pay so much and enter a club just for an hour,” Zomsa club owner, Younten said. “Many prefer to come out only after 10 pm anyway.” Tashi Gyeltshen, who established his club sometime in August 2010, said customers refused to come in even when the entry fee was reduced to Nu 100. “I’m on the verge of losing my business,” he said. While the owners had purchased the clubs, ranging from Nu 3M to Nu 6M, they paid between Nu 50,000 to Nu 75,000 as monthly rent, besides the salary they had to pay to the bouncers, bartenders, disc jockey and other staff. They said the clubs were established only after they met the provisions stated in 2006 media act. Tashi Gyeltshen said discotheques were often accused of being a hub and primary cause of substance abuse and gang formation, which was far from true. “The list of requirements keep getting longer, while operation hours are shortened,” one said. “This isn’t fair.” Home minister Minjur Dorji said that, since it was the cabinet that passed the directives, the matter will be submitted to them during the next meeting. “I can’t take the decision, but can definitely act as a middleman to convey the matter to the government,” he said. An official from BICMA, on request of anonymity, said since it was a policy issue, and thus only the government could decide whether to reinstate the earlier timing. “We were only regulating the directives received from the communication ministry,” he said. There are about 24 discotheques in the country. By Yangchen C Rinzin