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Ajita Shashidhar

`Acquiring quality education for the middle class is becoming an increasingly difficult proposition. We will now have to pay a premium for the coaching classes also.'

NEW DELHI, March 2

WITH the Finance Minister imposing an eight per cent service tax on commercial vocational institutes and tutorials, you may now have to pay a premium to get a berth in the tutorial college next door for coaching for your child's engineering or MBBS entrance exam.

Says tax consultant, Ms Ritu Jain, "The students would now have to shell out an additional amount of at least Rs 800-1,000 on tutorials or coaching classes, which have become so vital due to the steep competition to get a seat in a good college."

Ms Jain says that the Government while on the one hand has tried to please the salaried class under Section 88 of the Income-Tax Act by giving a tax rebate up to Rs 12,000 per child for two children for the purpose of education, on the other hand, it has burdened the parents by imposing this service tax.

Agreeing with Ms Jain, housewife, Ms Neelam Singh, mother of an 18-year-old son who is undergoing MBBS coaching at a Delhi-based coaching centre, says, "Acquiring quality education for the middle class is becoming an increasingly difficult proposition. Apart from paying through our nose to get a seat in a good college, we will now have to pay a premium for the coaching classes also."

However, Ms Chitra Patnaik, who is a teacher in a Delhi school, feels that the eight per cent service tax would only result in a marginal rise in the fees of the tutorial and coaching classes.

"There is stiff price competition amongst the various tutorial colleges, and I don't think there will be a steep hike in the prices. I foresee only a marginal rise."

In fact, Ms Patnaik feels that this eight per cent service tax is a welcome move, as it would curb the mushrooming growth of tutorial colleges, where the quality of service offered is not up to the mark."

Mr Sanjiv Kaura, National Convenor, National Alliance for the Fundamental Right to Education, says that both the tax benefits as well as the eight per cent service tax are a complete farce.

Commenting on the tax benefit announced on education, Mr Kaura said, "The Government is supposed to provide free elementary education to all the children in the country. With elementary education becoming a fundamental right, our question to the Government is, why are they committing the crime of handing over our education system to private sharks and then trying to please the salaried class by offering tax sops."

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