Saturday, 17 March 2012

Finance Minister: Students cheer as school education exempt from service tax

Students and parents have a reason to cheer as pre school and high school education have been been put in the negative list, exempting them from service tax.

Students do not have it easy as education loans do not come cheap. This year, the student community was hoping that exemptions against education loans would be extended to 10 years from the current eight years. However, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee offered no such respite.

Education qualifications to a great extent shape the careers of students. However today coaching classes and private tuitions have started having a major impact on their educational excellence. However, Mukherjee has promised to ensure better flow of credit to students, by proposing a Credit Guarantee Fund which will be set up.

For 2012-13, Rs 25,555 crore provided for RTE-SSA representing an increase of 21.7% over 2011-12.

Students were hoping that service tax would not be raised further from the current 10% as it results in a hike in school and college fees as well as tuition and coaching centre rates. But Mukherjee has gone ahead and hiked the service tax rate to 12%, adding pressure to family educational budgets.

Today education expenses have really sky rocketed and parents have to really think twice before choosing an institute. Changes of this kind are sure to impact a student's future career path.

6,000 schools have been proposed to be set up at block level as model schools in Twelfth Plan.

In Budget 2011, Pranab Mukherjee announced a substantial increase of 24% in the education sector. However, no changes have been mentioned in Budget 2012-13.

Rs 3,124 crore has been provided for Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) representing an increase of 29% over BE 2011-12.

The Girl Student's Expectations: The government failed to promote education among girls this time around. Mukherjee has not been able to deliver any specific provisions for easier educational loans for higher studies to girl students.

Many such students strongly felt that the time had come for the finance minister to take concrete steps in this regard and extend the moratorium on educational loans for girls as well as offer a softer interest rate. This would have enabled girls to make up for their traditional disadvantage in obtaining higher and specialised professional education which would help them stand on their own feet.

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/others/finance-minister-students-cheer-as-school-education-exemptservice-tax_680794.html

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