The military junta will begin selecting conscripts through a lottery system in the Pong Inn region of Taunggyi Township starting in December, after residents say no one is left willing to serve as a paid substitute.

Since the regime activated the Conscription Law in February 2023, households in Pong Inn have been hiring substitutes for military service, paying between 8 million and 10 million kyats (approximately USD 2,240) per person.

After nearly two years of this practice, locals say there are no longer people willing to take the job, forcing a switch to lottery-based recruitment.

“Before, you could just pay the money and that was it. Now, you can’t. No matter how much you offer, no one is willing to go,” said a male resident of Pong Inn. “No one who went as a substitute has come back, so people are afraid. Now, all that’s left is the lottery.”

The Pong Inn region — which includes the village tracts of Kyauk Ku, Ah Thone Taw, and Nar He — has been collecting monthly conscription fees from residents based on household numbers. In villages with larger populations, each household contributes about 12,000 kyats per month, while households in smaller villages pay up to 30,000 kyats.

A local woman said residents are also required to pay extortion money to the Pa-O National Organization (PNO) every six months, in addition to regular fees demanded by the junta.

“We have to pay the military junta every month, and another 10,000 kyats to the PNO,” she said. “That doesn’t include the other small fees they collect. Altogether, we pay about 40,000 kyats a month. Work is scarce — we can barely feed ourselves, but we still have to pay.”

In a separate development, residents in Ayethaya town, also in Taunggyi Township, have been informed that the monthly conscription fee will rise from 30,000 kyats to 200,000 kyats per household beginning in December.

Since the coup and the enforcement of the Conscription Law, local administrators have collected money to hire substitutes for military service. There have also been reports of Pyu Saw Htee militia and junta troops abducting young men and drug users for forced labor and portering.

The regime has now launched up to Batch 15 of military service training. Recruits who complete training are being deployed to frontline areas, with some offered promotions and cash incentives to remain as permanent soldiers.

The introduction of a conscription lottery has heightened anxiety among families in Pong Inn and other parts of southern Shan State, where fear of forced recruitment continues to grow.