Local officials in Meiktila District collect exorbitant fees from people to avoid military conscription

Mizzima

Sources who have close connections with local people said that the village administrators in Meiktila, Thasi and Pywabwe Townships in Meiktila District, Mandalay Region, collected exorbitant fees from the families whose members were eligible for being recruited as new conscripts under the National Service Law.

They collected 120,000 Kyats from family with one male member eligible for a new recruit, 300,000 Kyats from family with eligible three male family members and 400,000 Kyats from a family with eligible four family members, a two-fold increase from previous rates, these sources said.

These fees have been raised since the second week of August this year, collected based on the number of eligible family members, a local resident from Thasi said. Previously they collected only 50-100,000 Kyats from each household, he said to Mizzima.

“These village administration Chairmen are collecting money exorbitantly even from the widows who don’t have any eligible male members. These widows must pay 300-400,000 Kyats. They asked 120,000 Kyats from each family with one eligible male members, 300,000 Kyats from families with three eligible male members and they must pay once every four months,” he added.

The amount and methods of collections are varying from each township in Meiktila District but all in Meiktila, Thasi and Pyawbwe Townships must pay these fees to the village administrators and it was confirmed by over 10 villages in the district, these sources said.

The local residents from Buyone, Thamankan and Chauk villages in Thasi Township and Makyikan village in Meiktila Township had to pay a large amount of money for for family members to avoid National Service, the local residents said.

The youths were frequently arrested for forced recruitment as new conscripts in crowded and busy places in these areas. But there are fewer cases of raiding the houses and arresting the youths for recruiting as new conscripts than other places, the local people said.

Meiktila, Thasi and Pyawbwe Townships are contiguous in Meiktila District. The collections of fees for National Service from the families are uniform in these areas and many local people had to pay these exorbitant fees even though they are facing hardships in their livelihood.

The local people also said that the local administrators fixed the amount to be paid to them in 2025 and these announcements were made in these villages by loudhailers and they threatened that the families would be arrested unless they paid that prescribed amount to them.

Furthermore, in some villages, these local authorities collected up to 30-50 million Kyats from each village to pay for substitute conscripts and for exemption from being recruited, a local people said.

Previously these fees were collected in these villages based on the number of households in the villages. A source close to local administrators said that a village with about 600 households must pay 720 million kyats per annum at the rate of an average 100,000 Kyats per household.

There are negotiations and understanding between local administrators and junta troops regarding collecting fees for new conscripts and these villages were exempted from sending mandatory new conscripts to them.

But in some cases in some villages, they had to send new conscripts to military units though they had already paid these exemption fees to the local military units.

The fees for new conscripts have been collected twice a year since 2024 in Meiktila District but these fees have been increased and they must be paid once in every four months, it is learned.

The boot camp trainings under this National Service Law has reached 27th Intake so far.