Congress' student wing to demand reduction in GST for educational institutes

Nationalist Student Congress (NSC), student wing of the NCP, will soon submit a memorandum to the Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley to reduce the GST on higher educations and its auxiliary services.

Many higher educational institutions boast sprawling campuses, some of which host residential students as well. These institutions are likely to incur additional heavy expenditures on some of the services, like security, housekeeping, or catering, as these services will be charged 18% GST. In such a scenario, in all probability, these institutions will pass this tax burden on to the students, thus making higher education more expensive.

The NSC students’ wing will be launching an agitation to demand a reduction in the steep GST on students’ hostel facilities including services, like security, housekeeping, or catering, which has made higher education more expensive.

“The students are required to pay more for laundry, food in the hostel mess, medicines, stationery, and other services and products that they buy on the campus. ''All such services attract a levy of 18 per cent,” said Amol Matele, President of the Nationalist Student Congress (NSC), student wing of the NCP. “The NSC will soon submit a memorandum to the Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley and if the centre fails to reduce the GST, we will be left with no alternative but to launch a state wide agitation” he further added.