Tax on pvt universities: HC now can hear pending petitions

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court today cleared the way for the High Court to hear and dispose of nearly 100 pending writ petitions involving imposition of 15 percent income tax on private universities.

The apex court dismissed five separate review petitions against its observation that earlier said the High Court will individually hear and dispose of the writ petitions which challenged the decisions of the then caretaker government and the elected governments regarding collection of income tax from the private institutions.

The caretaker government in its decision had exempted the private universities from income tax while the elected governments imposed 15 income tax on those institutions.

An eight-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique passed the dismissal orders after hearing arguments on the review petitions.

Other seven judges of the bench are Justice Md Nuruzzaman; Justice Obaidul Hassan; Justice Borhanuddin; Justice M Enayetur Rahim; Justice Md Ashfaqul Islam; Justice Md Abu Zafor Siddique and Justice Jahangir Hossain.

Details of the SC order could not be known as its full text was not released yet.

However, private universities' lawyers Barrister Omar Sadat and Barrister Mohammad Sakhwat Hossain told The Daily Star that following the SC order, their clients will not need to pay any income tax until the HC's disposal of the writ petitions.

The apex court did not interfere in its previous directive that in 2021 asked the National Board of Revenue (NBR) not to demand or collect any income tax from private universities across the country until further orders, they said.

Meanwhile, Attorney General AM Amin Uddin told reporters that the private universities must pay income tax in accordance with the Finance Act.