Kathmandu, November 10:

The Private and Boarding Schools’ Organisation of Nepal (PABSON) has urged the government to come clean on the issue of nationalisation of the education sector.

Some days ago, Finance Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai had pitched for the nationalisation of the education sector. He had told the operators of private schools to explore other sectors for investment.

The private schools’ organisation organised a press conference here today to publicise the decisions made by PABSON at a meeting of chiefs of PABSON chapters on Saturday. Bhoj Bahadur Shah, president, PABSON, said, “Was the Finance Minister speaking on behalf of the government. If the government had plans to nationalise the education sector, it should have made mention of the same in the budget speech. Was Dr Bhattarai speaking on behalf of the CPN-Maoist? If these were the views of the CPN-Maoist, the party spokesperson should have aired them.”

The PABSON chief said, “We will hand over a memorandum to the Minister and the Education Minister on the matter if the Finance Minister refuses to put the record straight. PABSON members also stood against the bid to impose five per cent Education Service Tax.

“Institutional schools have been paying 25 per cent of their profit to the government and giving 10 per cent for scholarships. Therefore, it is inappropriate on the part of the government to impose the EST. The plan to impose EST shows that the state is forcing the private sector to pay dual taxes.” The meeting also passed twelve-point proposal that disagrees to pay dual tax to the government saying education and health are the basic services therefore it should not be imposed tax on them.

The proposal further urges the government to formulate the law to regulate institutional schools as well as to guarantee the stability and continuity of institutional schools.