15pc tax on private colleges, universities proposed

Finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has proposed a 15 per cent tax on the private educational institutions including colleges and universities.

He made the proposal while presenting a Tk 6.03 trillion (603,681 crore) national budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year at parliament on Thursday afternoon.

The government had imposed tax on private educational institutions in 2010, but the matter remained unsettled because of lawsuit.

Mustafa Kamal said, “In some cases artificial juridical persons used to enjoy the facility of paying taxes at the rate applicable for individual taxpayers, which is inconsistent with our philosophy of taxation. I, therefore, propose to fix the rate of income tax for artificial juridical persons and other entities, not otherwise defined, at 30 per cent instead of the rate applicable for individual taxpayers.”

“The applicable rate of tax on income arising out of operation of private universities, private medical, dental and engineering colleges as well as private colleges engaged solely in imparting education on ICT has been reduced to 15 per cent through an SRO (statutory regulatory order). I propose before this august House to include this rate of 15 per cent in the Finance Act,” he added.