Consultations needed on ‘VAT on education’

Dear Editor,
The providers of private education have been contributing sacrificially and efficiently to the education of a large number of students – young people of this nation – and have been doing so cheerfully for a long time and at their financial disadvantage. Because of this, there should be no value-added tax (VAT) on education at this time.
A majority of those students are from families who cannot afford an additional financial burden on their budget. It is palpably evident that, in most cases, a family is poor but has a child, or in some cases children, who are academically ahead of their peers, and those children would need a better quality of education, such as is not provided by some of the Government schools in Guyana.
Without wanting to dabble in partisan politics on this vexing and vogue matter of value-added tax (VAT on private education), I respectfully ask that our Government and all concerned parties convene a special meeting to thoroughly consult on this matter, and/or appoint a special national committee of learned men and women to listen to the views of all sides. It is a known fact that most of the private schools in this country provide a better quality of education to children who may, one day in the future, make significant contributions to the further development of our country. The children who would benefit from a good quality of education may one day in the future contribute significantly to this country’s continued development. Not all students in private schools come from parents who are rich and can afford the value-added tax, but those parents do understand the need for a good quality of education for their children, and recognize that that type of education is provided by most of the private educational institutions in this country.
This matter of VAT on private education should not be treated as a partisan or racial matter, but as an intelligent and commonsensical matter wherein private education is now been strangled in the clutches of the ‘tax man’.
Finally, may I suggest to the ‘authorities that be’ that they need to appoint with haste a national committee of learned men and women to hear and listen to the evidences from both sides of this vexing and vogue matter – for and against tax on private education – and then pronounce.
I trust that the powers that be would give consideration to this request.

Yours faithfully,
Rooplall Dudhnath