The High Court has once again questioned the legality of imposing 7.5% VAT on the tuition fees at private universities and private medical colleges.
In response to a writ petition filed by a teacher and two students of two private universities, the HC bench of Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif and Justice JN Deb Choudhury yesterday issued a rule upon the government to explain in four weeks why the VAT would not be declared illegal.
The respondents are the secretaries to the Ministries of Education, Finance, Law and the chairmen of National Board of Revenue and the University Grants Commission.
Petitioners’ lawyer AKM Salahuddin Khan said they had submitted the petition last week challenging the government’s “discriminatory and illegal” decision as it did not impose VAT on tuition fees of the public universities.