VAT on education aims to generate revenue

Demanding removal of the value added tax (VAT) on private universities, opposition leaders yesterday contradicted the finance minister's claim that the university authorities, rather than students, will have to pay this money.

They said the full tax burden would fall on students.

"Nothing can be worse than imposing VAT in the education sector because it is the backbone of a nation. The decision proves that the government does not want to develop the sector," Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad, also special envoy of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said in a statement.

Separately, BNP standing committee member Goyeshwar Chandra Roy said at the Jatiya Press Club that it was a government initiative to assemble money for the large budget this year.

"How money will be collected for this huge budget? To fill the shortage, they are taking money out of people's pockets," he said.

At another discussion, former vice-chancellor of Dhaka University Emajuddin Ahmed claimed that no country in the world had imposed VAT on education.

He said Bangladesh's private universities would be good universities like other countries if the government did not create any obstacle.

Emajuddin, convener of pro-BNP citizens' group Adarsha Dhaka Andolan, also said the government did not make any contribution to private universities; so it had no right to impose VAT.

Pointing to Finance Minister AMA Muhith's apology for his defamatory comments against public university teachers, he said the minister should also apologise for imposing VAT.

Rejecting the minister's remarks and National Board of Revenue's statement that the VAT would be collected from universities, Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal said the remarks aimed at confusing the students. 

The government has recently imposed 7.5 percent VAT on private universities, without clarifying who will be paying it.