PRIVATE UNIVERSITY TUITION FEES : VAT triggers student protests [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

PRIVATE UNIVERSITY TUITION FEES : VAT triggers student protests

Local September 11, 2015

The recent slapping of 7.5 per cent value added tax on tuition fees triggered day-long protests by thousands of private university students Thursday bringing the capital’s traffic to complete halt.
The students held peaceful demonstrations shouting slogans ‘Our parents are not ATM Machines.’
They protests took place blocking the Mirpur Road passing by Dhanmondi, the
Airport Road leading to Uttara, the Progati Sarani at Rampura and several other busy roads at Mohakhali, and Barihdara from 11AM to 7 PM.
Heavy police contingents also blocked entry to the streets where the demonstrations took place with armored personnel carriers and water cannons kept ready.
The protesters described VAT on tuition fees as totally discriminatory against the students of private universities and said it would stifle higher education of children from fixed income families.
The capital witnessed the protests on the issue for the second consecutive day.
The protests would continue today, said the students.
Private university students in the port city of Chittagong and the city of Sylhet also staged street protests against the imposition of VAT on tuition fees by the government.
On the busy streets, commuters were seen getting down from buses, cars and rickshaws as they remained stuck for hours.
But several parents said that they didn’t mind walking as they spent their hard earned money to send their children to private universities.
The picture was no different on the lanes and the by-lanes at every nook and corner of the capital.
School goers had the same experience while returning home with parents.

Private university students stage protests for cancellation of VAT on their tuition fees blocking Mirpur Raod near Rapa Plaza
on Thursday. — Sanaul Haque.

Rickshaw pullers and auto-rickshaw drivers refused to take passengers even on lanes and by-lanes citing the jams as the reason.
The students also lodged protests against Wednesday’s police attacks on the East West University pupils’ protests on the same issue which left at least 30 of them injured.
They demanded punishment of the police personnel who took part in the attacks on peaceful demonstrations .
The protesters described the policy of government as contradictory as it imposed VAT on the private universities after declaring them as non-profit organizations.
‘We demand a complete roll back of VAT and not just cuts,’ said Akramuzzaman Shubho one of the organizers of the Movement for the Education Rights of Private Universities.
Association of Non-Government Universities of Bangladesh president, Sheikh Kabir Hossain said that they cautioned the government about the impending protests by the students opposing the imposition of 7.5 per cent VAT on their tuition fees.
He said that classes and exams of many universities suffered serious disruptions due to the protests.
In the afternoon, University Grants Commission chairman Abdul Mannan said he would make no comments on the issue over phone.
In June, while adopting the finance bill for the fiscal 2015-16 the government slapped 7.5 per cent VAT on tuition fees of private universities as well as medical and engineering colleges scaling it down by 2.5 per cent in the face of protests by students.
In his budget speech in Parliament in the first week of June, the finance minister had proposed to impose 10 per cent VAT on tuition fees of these private institutions.
In August, the High Court issued a rule on the government asking it to explain why imposition of 7.5 per cent VAT on the tuition fees should not be declared illegal.
The students of the East West University held peaceful demonstration on the Pragati Sarani at Rampura close to their campus.
Students of Brac University, American International University of Bangladesh and South East University peacefully marched on the street from Mohakhali to Gulshan.
North South University students took out processions in the Basundhara Residential Area, close to their campus.
Students of Uttora University, Dhaka International University, Shanto Mariam University of Creative Technology held demonstrations blocking the street at House Building Crossing.
The students of Daffodil University, United International University, University of Liberal Arts, Stamford University of Bangladesh held demonstrations blocking the point where Satmasjid Road meets Dhanmondi Road No 27 and the point where the Mirpur Road meets Dhanmondi Road No 27 and also at Sukrabad.
The protesters shouted slogans declaring that they would not leave until the government withdrew VAT on their tuition fees.
They held the demonstrations holding placards with the inscription ‘NO VAT ON EDUCATION, Shoot At Us, We Are Ready to Give Blood, But Not VAT’ ‘VAT on Education is Not Acceptable’, ‘Education is A Fundamental Right, Not a Product,’ ‘Our Parents Are Not ATM Booths.’
Commuters faced unprecedented traffic jams throughout the capital.
Office goers waited in vain for hours to catch buses or other transports to return homes.
This was a common picture at Azimpur, Framgate, Uttora and other places.
Many of them had to walk for hours to return home.
Women, children, the elderly and the ailing were the worst sufferers of the traffic jams.
Banani police officer in charge Mohammad Salauddin and Dhanmondi police officer in charge Nure Azam said the students staged the demonstrations peacefully.
They also said that additional police contingents were deployed to ward of untoward incidents.
In Chittagong city, students held demonstrations blocking the GEC Crossing.
In Sylhet city, students held the demonstrations on the Court Point, Chourasta, Surma Point and Taltola.
The protesters held the demonstrations at Savar.
In 2010, the Awami League-led government was forced to withdraw 4.5 per cent VAT on tuition fees of private universities within a month of imposing it in the face students’ protests.
According to the UGC, 4.6 lakh students are studying in the country’s 83 private universities.