Every household in Ye Township has been ordered to pay a 10,000 MMK a month tax to support local junta militias, conscripts and retired military personnel, since August 2024.

The decision to levy the charges was made at a meeting in July between the junta and the Ye Township Administrative Committee.

Previously, households were sometimes asked to pay a one-off fee of a few thousand MMK to subsidise the conscripts, but now a household member has to personally go and pay 10,000 MMK every month at locations designated by the junta.

A Ye Town resident said: “Households in Thirimarlar and Thirinandar wards have already paid 10,000 MMK each in August. They [the junta] do not come to collect the payment, locals need to go and pay personally at the junta’s designated locations. [Some households in] Zeyar and Khaingmar wards are experiencing significant financial difficulties and cannot make the payment. It is still unclear what will happen next.”

In addition, 15 people from each ward in Ye Town has to join the militia.

Payments for local militias, conscripts, and retired military personnel vary by location, in Mon State they range from 10,000 MMK to 50,000 MMK.

Currently, many Ye Town families are concerned that male heads of households will be recruited into the militias, meaning that families will lose their main source of income.

The junta is recruiting men aged 35 to 65 to serve in armed local militias at regional, district, township, ward and village levels, and in the capital Naypyidaw. The militias will be manned by volunteers and forcibly conscripted people who will be armed and undergo military training before being assigned to security duties.

Three Mon State resistance forces (the Mon State Federal Council, the Mon State Revolutionary Force, and the Mon State Defense Force) issued a joint statement on 2 September, warning people not to join the junta’s militias.