People are demanding to rationalise the tax at a certain level in all the sectors. Considering the point of people, the Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla is planning review the tax in the educational sector as ‘Education is the most powerful weapon which one can use to change the world’.
At a roundtable which was organized by consulting group StratFirst and industry body Assocham, he said: “Though there is demand for tax cuts from all sectors and large revenue is needed to run the country, you can come up with your recommendations for reviewing GST on certain components in the education sector”.
Mr Shukla said, “If there is a strong reason to review the tax rate on certain components, I assure you we will take it up with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley”.
StratFirst is an intermediary in the education sector between the public and private players. For discussing the pre-budget in the knowledge sector, StratFirst has given a platform. The report of the discussion of the pre-budget has come out which was done by both StratFirst and the Assocham.
The reports say that the GST slab rate must be lowered for educational institutions as well as for students. The support for education was given to the higher educational institutions which after the GST has increased the education cost by 7%.
Forgiving better and focused education, institutions outsource the admissions and transportations.
The report said, “It is proposed to partially exempt GST on outsourced services in higher education from 18 per cent to 5 per cent, to create low-cost educational institutions that offer services at all levels — primary, secondary and higher education”.
The report also said that the Indian children have rights to education and for this, the Ayushmaan Bharat scheme must be given to the children who perform extraordinarily well in their education.
JNU and Melbourne University professor Amitabh Mattoo said “I congratulate StratFirst India and Assocham on organising an excellent discussion on Budget Expectations for the 3E’s — Education, Entrepreneurship and Employability. Fostering conversations in these key sectors, involving all stakeholders is the only way forward in resolving vital issues which will help India claim its rightful place in the new world order”.
Also, the participants suggested some tax benefits in order to generate some quality employment in the education sector. A release said “It was noted during the conference that India lacks more than two million teachers. To motivate people to join teaching as a profession, it is proposed that teachers, professors and researchers be eligible for a special tax regime”.
As the employee’s taxable income must be reviewed after a standard deduction or hiking threshold exemption limit.
StratFirst India Brand Consultant Nancy Jain said “We are very glad to see the level of interest and more specifically the convergence of thought between the government and private sector in helping to boost education, entrepreneurship and employability in India. We are looking forward to presenting the report from today’s discussion to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley”.
