Three diesel prices for the same litre

The structural finding is the gap between what the consumer experiences (Nu 100.89/L) and what the country actually pays (Nu 123.89/L). The Nu 23 between them is the subsidy line — paid directly by the government to the Indian Oil Marketing Company on every litre sold at the Thimphu pump.

For a single 60-litre tank in a Bolero, the gap is Nu 1,380 — invisible to the household budget. Across all motorists in the country, the cumulative spend is Nu 1.45 billion as of 22 May 2026 (per the PM’s statement to the National Assembly).

The mechanism is structurally regressive — the household that owns a vehicle is, by definition, not the household most in need of a Nu 1,380 monthly transfer. The subsidy is broad-based, automatic, and unaccompanied by the kind of cash-transfer architecture (PAHAL India, Citizen’s Account Saudi Arabia) that other fuel-reform programmes have used to target the actual low-income cohort.

The interaction with paradox #73 — that the same government writing the subsidy cheque is the one receiving the public blame for the pump price — is the political-economy half of the same fiscal mechanism.