Education gets a push from Jaswant

In an unexpected sop to the middle class, the Budget provides tax relief to parents of school-going children by bringing school fees and all...

In an unexpected sop to the middle class, the Budget provides tax relief to parents of school-going children by bringing school fees and allied expenses up to Rs 12,000 per two children per family under Section 88 of the Income Tax Act.

‘‘Education expenses up to Rs 12,000 per child for two children in a family will be eligible for rebate under Section 88 of the Income Tax Act,’’ Singh said.

There’s some good news for writers as well as there’s tax exemption on book royalties upto Rs 3 lakh. Though the HRD ministry’s timely intervention has helped stall a cut in elementary education and higher education outlay, in actual terms there is no gain either.

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The elementary education allocation for 2003-04 remains stagnant at Rs 4,900 crore as against Rs 7,960 crore estimated by the Planning Commission and Rs 8,000 crore projected by HRD ministry. This year’s allocation is exactly the same as that for the last fiscal.

‘‘In real terms, the budgetary allocation is not just low, it is insufficient. It will certainly put the HRD ministry, which has take care of the universalisation of education programme, in a major fix,’’ an official in the Elementary Education said. Doubts were also raised on whether the government was interested in supporting education, ‘‘these were symptoms of government’s gradual withdrawal from the education sector,’’ said Sanjiv Kaura, NAFRE spokeperson.

Kaura pointed out that the tax-benefit given towards their children’s education expense runs contrary to the 86th Amendement Act which makes education a Fundamental Right for the 6-14 age group.

For the secondary and higher education, the outlay is no better than last years. It has been kept at Rs 2,125 crore for 2003-04— not a penny more or less than 2002-03—as against the projected requirement of Rs 3,197.81 crore. However, the Department of Higher Education was expects some remedial measures in form of supplementary grants.

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