discretion. Organizations exempt from customs duties must still pay sales tax when importing goods into Bhutan, however. Vehicle import tax controversy Taxation has been a topic of controversy since democratization in Bhutan. In June 2010, the first democratically elected government of Bhutan revised the import duty scheme on imported light private vehicles, raising taxes without following the procedures for bicameral presentment and debate required by the Constitution. The move was supported by some Bhutanese as curbing congestion and pollution while promoting mass transit development. The National Assembly opposition party contested the action in the High Court of Bhutan, Constitutional Bench, winning the initial suit. On appeal to the Supreme Court of Bhutan, the Attorney General argued that the tax revision was supported by pre-constitutional laws on direct and indirect taxation that remained unrepealed. The Attorney General also argued against judicial reviewability of political actions, a position based largely in United States jurisprudence developed by Louis Brandeis and supported by American case law. In December 2010, while the lawsuit was pending, the government ordered a halt of all imports subject to the tax, a move the opposition criticized as contempt of court. On February 24, 2011, the Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the High Court ruling against the government. The government lifted the import ban in early March 2011 and stated its intention to refund the taxes it had collected illegally, although it may reintroduce the tax revisions and pass them in the constitutional process. The government, though shaken by the ruling, has declared it will not resign over the debacle. After the controversy, the World Bank in its Financial Management Accountability Assessment warned that Bhutan's financial matters needed better legislative scrutiny. The World Bank cited inadequate examination and debate in Parliament before passing budgets, which include tax schedules. Furthermore, the World Bank decried the inability of Parliament to modify proposed budgets, but only to ratify proposals of the Ministry of Finance. History During the reign of Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal (1594–1651), taxes in Bhutan were levied by penlops (regional governors). In 1865, Ashley Eden described the taxation in Bhutan as not so much a system as "squeez[ing] as much as possible out of the people under them." Modernly, governmental authority was fully consolidated in 1907 with the establishment of the Wangchuck Dynasty and the modern state of Bhutan. Before the 1960s, the Bhutanese government collected taxes in kind and in the form