The Association of Private Universities of Bangladesh on Tuesday demanded withdrawal of all value added tax and other tax imposed on private universities in the country.
The association, a body of the entrepreneurs and founders of the country鈥檚 114 private universities, in a press release issued on the day termed the imposition of taxes on these universities as discrimination.
The release read that along with the students of public university the students of private universities also led the recent student protests.
鈥楤ut there are huge discriminations between public and private sectors in tertiary level education system,鈥� it continued, adding, 鈥極n the one hand, the public universities are run with our money, on the other hand, the government collects VAT and different tax from the private universities which are non-profitable institutions.鈥�
The release read that the government collected 15 per cent income tax, 5 per cent VAT in cases of all purchases and 2 per cent to 7 per cent taxes on sales.
Following these, the private universities were deprived of the expected development, it continued.
The association believes that if the same amount of money collected from the private universities as tax can be allocated as government grant for the private universities鈥� development then the existing discriminations between public and private universities will be reduced.
Due to existing tax, the private universities鈥� allocation for researches was also reduced by 15 per cent, the release continued.
The association demanded withdrawal of all VAT and tax imposed on the private universities and easing all discrimination against these universities.
