Sunday, September 13, 2015

No VAT says Students, VAT legal says government

The VAT confusion

Protests sprang across the entire Dhaka city from on Thursday in an absolutely organized student movement, to get vocal about the announcement of 7.5% VAT on education by the government. Only since the huge Shahabgh movement, was such a scale of protest seen in the capital.

Finance minister AMA Muhith urged that this decision will not be overturned reasoning that the system had already been in place, which the university authorities have already agreed to. He rashly commented denouncing the movement of the “most educated sections..due to their lack of knowledge” for which he later apologized. He also stated that the students will not have to bear the burden, the issue being reconsidered in the coming days.

The NBR stated that this tax is on the private universities, not on the students, but government authorities could not clarify whether this had been extracted in this form in the past. Students, as well as teachers were not convinced, arguing strongly that since
universities are not business institutions, they should not be charged VAT. Students came to protests in the streets with all sorts of slogans "No VAT on Education," "Education is not a product" and "Why firing on students?”

Ongoing protests started Thursday, consisted of most private universities who took the streets and blocked Mohakhali and Gulshan, sat-in at Progati Sarani at Bashundhara and totally occupied Satmasjid Road and Mirpur Road. Asad gate and Tejgaon aread also saw some protests. It all started from around 10-11pm, while traffic blockades created massive standstill from 2pm. Everything was preplanned and coordinated between institutions over social media. Later, East-west university’s students were fired rubber bullets by the police hurting 35 students, in Badda in an attempt at crowd control. Later another scuffle by a group of young men was witnessed later in the day, which was rumored to be a vested quarter with an intention to foil the movement. Protests were staged also in Chittagong, Sylhet and Rajshahi.

Apart from these minor incidents, the demos have been peaceful with the student mass maintaining peace in the streets. However, they, backed by many educationalists, agree that education is a “basic right” and there should not be any form of tax on this, since it will be extracted ultimately from students. Protests around public universities will be staged until Monday, demanding the entire removal of VAT from education.

The NBR although, clarified that the distinction between VAT inclusive and exclusive price, saying if not mentioned as exclusive, it is automatically the other. Thus, VAT is, and has been, already included in tuition fees. Students however, logically feel that since students are the only income source of universities, there is no other form of extraction of this additional amount, other than them. So, they are planning to continue protests citywide.

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