Budget 2018 podcast: Expectations of education sector

We’re just a few days away from the Modi government’s 2018 budget and guess what – the expectations are gathering steam every day.

Commerce associations in India are recommending enhancing the outlay for the education sector, along with greater tax relief for higher education under GST.

Budget 2018 will be the first one after the implementation of GST. The commerce bodies say that the time has come for corrections in distortions which were a result of repeated amendments to service tax for the education sector. The most recent amendment in March 2017 denied tax relief for listed services for higher educational institutions. The associations say this needs to be withdrawn as it represents a discrimination against institutions of higher education.

The chamber also said no clarification was provided for the sudden disruption in the parity of higher educational institutions, universities, research institutions with higher secondary schools with regard to the limited tax exemption made available to primary school upward to higher secondary level.

Another concern that was highlighted was, many higher education institutions and numerous private universities that were established after legislative modifications in the Centre and States in the last decade are facing serious financial problems due to large capital requirements and non availability of concessional finance.