Jaipur: Over 130 colleges affiliated with Govind Guru Tribal University (GGTU) in Banswara are protesting against the 18% GST being charged in affiliation fees. They have registered a complaint with the governor stating that GST doesn’t apply to affiliation fees and it would result in increased fees for students. 

The college association in Banswara has contended that due to the pandemic, they had suffered heavy losses and the additional 18% GST on top of the affiliation fees would put them under additional stress. 

Sharad Joshi of private college association in Banswara said, “It is not compulsory for universities to collect 18% GST. Not all universities in the state are collecting it. Also, we have presented the cases to the university that how colleges were refunded the GST amount wrongly collected by respective universities.” The report said the university is charging Rs 80,000 per subject for 80 students along with Rs 15,000 inspection fees. The 18% GST is additional to the university charges and inspection fees required for granting affiliation for the session 2022-23. “The institutes will be left with the no choice to pass the onus to the students by increasing the fees. The decision would impact close to 50,000 students,” said Joshi. Reacting to the controversy, IV Trivedi, vice-chancellor of GGTU told TOI, “The GST sum is collected by the government not by the university. I have gone through though their plea and have asked them to furnish any court order exempting the GST in such cases. I have also sought guidance from the higher education department.”