15% tax on private universities illegal: HC

The High Court today declared illegal the 15 percent income tax imposed by the government on the private universities and private medical, dental and engineering colleges.

The court delivered the verdict after scrapping three government orders imposing the 15 percent tax on the private institutions. The government issued two of the orders in 2007 and one in 2010.

The HC bench of Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif and Justice Bishwadeb Chakraborty came up with the verdict after hearing 46 writ petitions filed by 12 private universities and a student challenging legality of the government orders.

Private universities and private medical, dental and engineering colleges need not pay income tax to the government now following the HC verdict, Barrister Omar Sadat and Barrister Shakhawat Hossain, two lawyers for the writ petitioners, told The Daily Star.

The HC had earlier stayed the effectiveness of the government orders imposing tax on the institutions that moved the writ petitions challenging the legality of the government orders at different times between 2007 and 2014, the lawyers also said.

By delivering the verdict, the HC observed that the government, by imposing 15 percent tax on the institutions, had violated equal protection of law for the young citizens of the country in terms of Article 27 and Article 31 of the contitution, they added.