The High Court once again has questioned legality of imposing 7.5% VAT on tuition fees of all 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 on Tuesday issued a rule upon the government to explain in four weeks as to why the VAT would not be declared illegal.
It asked the secretaries to the ministries of education, finance, law and chairmen of National Board of Revenue (NBR) and University Grant Commission (UGC) to respond to the rule.
Petitioners’ lawyer AKM Salahuddin Khan said they 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.
The decision violated the equal rights of citizens to get education as per the constitution, he said.
The NBR on July 4 issued a notification imposing the VAT.
On August 9, the same HC bench responding to another writ petition had issued a rule upon the government, seeking explanations over the VAT imposing. The rule is now pending with the bench.
