The government should reconsider its plan to impose 10% VAT on private universities and medical and engineering colleges.
By making attendance at these institutions costlier, it will hinder, not help the development of higher education in the country.
Policy-makers need to recognise that private universities provide an important public service by helping to fulfill the rising demand for higher education in Bangladesh.
With spaces at public universities in short supply due to a combination of more qualified candidates and resource constraints, their role is a vital one. By expanding opportunities for higher education within the country, they also save foreign exchange, by providing an alternative for students who might otherwise pay to study abroad.
It is a mistake to impose extra costs on the students of private higher education institutions as the disadvantages created will far outweigh revenue gains to the government.
The government has an over-riding duty to increase access to quality higher education. If the government is unable to provide this service through public universities, it should not hamper the country further by imposing barriers on private institutions which can help support this goal.
That private universities are offering a high standard of education is proven by the success rate of their graduates in the market-place. They also bring healthy competition to help stimulate improvements in a public university system that is beset by limited resources, damaging campus politics, and unending session jams.
Taxing private universities in the way proposed can only limit their potential to further higher education in our country, while doing nothing to raise standards in public universities. The government should think again.