DARE - Because Entrepreneurs Do

Heavily tax coaching institutes, minting money on preparing young aspirants for their entry into civil & armed services, medical, engineering and management institutes of repute as these hardly make any disclosure of tuition fee annually accumulated by them, proposes The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

In a note submitted to the Revenue Department of the Finance Ministry, the ASSOCHAM has stressed that hundreds of coaching institutes, claiming expertise in fulfilling aspirations of young graduates to enter into aforesaid prestigious services are mushrooming and charging astronomically higher fee without submitting proper accounts of their income to tax authorities.

The Chamber, therefore, holds that such institutes as make tons of money in the name of imparting perfect knowledge to young students, seeking to make career in civil and other services through competitive examinations, conveniently evade taxation though they charge unbelievable amount of money for preparing candidates for IITs and IIMs.

D S Rawat, ASSOCHAM Secretary General however, says that time has come when tax authorities ought to awake to subject coaching institutes not only to income tax but other taxes such as service tax, since these earn lot of money in a year from young students.

The Chamber which is giving final touches to its proposal for subjecting coaching institutes to tax liability as part of its corporate social responsibility holds a view that roughly over Rs,10,000 crore of money annually is made by over 100 coaching institutes run across the country to prepare educated youths for IITs and IIMs alone.

The Chamber,  seeks that such institutions should be brought under the tax net and tax authorities should conduct a detailed monitoring of their income as it is alleged that while enrolling students for career making in such institute, their management hardly give them documentary evidences for receipt of their fee.  This should stop now, feels the Chamber.

It has mooted that the business of providing coaching should also be managed by the government as it involves lot of monetary benefits.  The government has over 957 employment exchanges located across the country with huge assets base.  Since, the intended purpose of employment exchanges have lost its relevance in new economies, majority of them should be converted into coaching institutes not only for civil and armed forces but also IITs, IIMs and other vocational courses.

According to ASSOCHAM, the main reason for declining share of employment opportunities by employment exchanges is mainly due to ample job opportunities provided by private job portals and other online players which conduct quick interviews in hassle-free atmosphere with  quick placements services.

The other state-owned recruitment centers like Union Public Service Commission, Staff Selection Commission, Railways Recruitment Board, Banking Service Commission which make direct recruitment have also eroded the efficiencies of the employment exchanges.

Since, mainly these employment exchanges provide jobs to middle-class, the Fee Structure in these centers should be at concessional rates with no compromise on quality of faculties and infrastructure.

Source: ASSOCHAM

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed