The Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) is all set to collect commercial tax from all the private schools operating from Dehradun. The order has come after the mayor Sunil Uniyal ‘Gama’ instructed all the officials to take necessary steps on it. It is for the first time that MCD would collect tax from the private institutions. Government schools, however, have remained untouched by the order.
According to the information received by the officials, the city has a good number of private schools which would give to the MCD coffer nearly Rs 2 crore by way of commercial tax to be collected.
Mayor Sunil Uniyal ‘Gama’ said, “We have given the direction from our end. It clearly states that commercial tax would be collected from the private schools based in the city. The tax collection might help swell the civic body coffer.”
The officer in-charge of the civic body said that they have received the order to collect tax from all the private schools/ institutes located in the city. “Currently we are working on a list which would contain the names of all the private schools. The tax would be collected under the slab of commercial property tax. The work to make the list is under process. Once the work is over we would send the tax collection orders to all the private schools operating from the city.”
Private schools, on the other hand, have given a mixed response regarding the order of commercial tax being collected from them. Some private schools of the city dubbed the move as extremely unfair. “The educational institutes, whether government or private, should be exempted from the tax net,” a senior staff of a private school said. However, some private schools stated that everyone should follow the rules. “We are ready to pay the tax if the order asks us so,” said a head of another private school based in the city.