Higher education: University teachers reject tax proposals

‘Cancellation of tax rebate will cause brain drain’.

LAHORE:

The Federation of All Pakistan Universities’ Academic Staff Associations (FAPUASA) has said taxation proposals on education in the 2013-14 budget may reverse recent improvements in higher education.

The government is to introduce a five per cent tax on tuition fees exceeding Rs200,000 a year. “This is unfair to public universities as the fees are set by the government ... This will benefit private universities as they can keep the fee at Rs190,000 to avoid the tax,” said FAPUASA Secretary General Dr Jamil Ahmad Chitrali at the Punjab University Executive Club on Saturday.

He also condemned a new tax on lab equipment. “The chemicals used in the chemistry labs, for example, are imported,” he said. “If USAID gives Rs10 million to build a new department, the university will have to pay tax. And above all the universities will have to pay tax on their endowment funds,” he added.

Another official said that universities were required to keep their endowment funds above a certain minimum level, after which they could not use it. By taxing them, the government might actually take the funds below the minimum level.

FAPUASA President Dr Ahsan Sharif said the tax rebate on teachers and researchers’ salaries was an important financial incentive for them to work in Pakistan. “As a result of the policies introduced in 2001, at least seven public universities were recently assessed as being in the top 400 universities in the world, when not a single one was in the top 500 before 2002. Many teachers from abroad came to teach in Pakistan ... they will reconsider their decision and might go back,” he said.

The federation also demanded that the teachers’ pay be increased by 30 per cent rather than 10 per cent.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 23^rd, 2013.