Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 17, 2017 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
The government is trying to save face. It does plan to remove the VAT on education immediately. It has held consultations on the VAT on private education but during those consultations it made it clear that the review of the VAT will most likely be in time for the 2018 Budget.
In other words, the government is saying that they will keep the VAT for this year. This of course will allow the government to judge the decline in enrollment and then to undertake a review.
The problem with this approach is that the academic year commences in September and while some parents will bind their bellies and borrow the extra money to pay the VAT, these same parents will be hoping that the government will ease the pressure some, January next year.
These parents may be hoping for too much. Once the government is convinced that enrollment for September is not adversely affected by the VAT, it will not remove it. Once parents show that they can pay the VAT, the government will not remove it.
The government is divorced from reality. It does not understand the trials and tribulations of parents who have making tremendous sacrifices to send their children to private schools. Almost all of these parents are convinced that the level of education is higher in these schools than in the majority of public schools. There are a few public schools which are high flyers, but once a child does not get into these schools, parents feel that in order to get a good education for their children, they have to send them to private schools. There is much justification in this belief. Some parents also feel that their children are safer in the private schools because of the high levels of discipline in these schools
The parents of the children presently enrolled will make the sacrifices to ensure that their offspring are able to attend private schools. But many, who had planned to send their children to these schools, come September, are not going to be able to do so because of the higher costs.
The imposition of VAT on private education is an obscenity. The government has never had a programme to support private education in Guyana. There has never been an incentive regime specific to private education. There has never been a documented policy on supporting private education. It has been seen as elitist and therefore affordable by those who send their children to these schools. Having not supported private education, the government now shamelessly comes and taxes it. The burden of this tax falls on the parents.
Government must not judge this burden only in terms of the tuition. They must understand the other costs involved, such as uniforms, books, transportation, pocket money and meals. All latter costs add up to a princely sum at the end of the month.
Private education emerged as a response to the growth of the middle class. It arose because the educational system is as such that if your child does not obtain one of the top schools in Guyana, then that child’s prospects of doing well are seriously diminished.
This is the reality in Guyana, and this has forced many persons to seek a better education for their children. Without any support, these parents are now being asked to pay a tax on VAT. This is obscene.
The VAT on private education is an outrage. Almost everyone in the cabinet enjoyed a free education. The APNU likes to boast about the value of free education. Yet here is tax policy which is aimed to eroding that policy, and yet the government does not seem to be bothered.
It is shameful to hear some of the justifications which are being used to justify the tax. One of those justifications is that people have a choice. If they cannot afford to pay the school fees plus the VAT, they have the option to sending their children to public schools.
For many parents, the choice between a private school and public school is one between a second class education and a decent education. To ask parents to make that sort of choice is disrespectful.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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