PUSAG Tackles Government Over Tax On Private Universities

The Private Universities Students' Association of Ghana (PUSAG) is calling on government to out rightly restore the tax exemption on private universities.

We bemoan on the fact that, this clearly shows government doesn't recognize the complementary role of private universities in supplementing the increasing demand for tertiary education in this country.

This intervention by government is inadvertently going to shoot up our tuition fees , when already our tuition fees are being increased annually by our institutions due to lack of government subventions on private universities, unlike public universities.

Each and every year, private universities pay affiliation fees to the National Accreditation Board and the affiliated public universities. Meanwhile, they are being denied as beneficiaries of GETFund, state scholarships, and states funding for research and others. With this burden of adding cooperate tax to their duty expenditures; it is inevitably going to saddle their administration of providing education at a much moderate. cost.

We must acknowledge that the developed countries which had grow on the backbone of education; it is because private universities are mostly dominant and they are tax exempted. In Ghana, there are 63 private universities and last year admitted 26% in the overall applicants.

This year, there have been overflows of admission into the tertiary institutions because of the double batches of students from the Senior High Schools. It is going to be a recipe for disaster with this tax imposed on private universities. This is the time that government must come in to support private universities to meet the challenges of absolving the admission blues.

We are therefore appealing to government to support private universities to make things flexible for the students' admissions and their tuition fees by supporting these institutions. Thank you.

Signed:
Elias Zigah

National PUSAG President

0207975394

Michael Sumaila
Media Relations Officer