It has come to light that many top private educational institutions in Guwahati that collected fees from students even during the peak Covid-19 situation when physical classes remained suspended have evaded from paying taxes to the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC).
Some of these institutions also did not let students attend online classes and sit for exams for non-payment of monthly fees, have pending taxes to the tune of crores, to be paid to the GMC.
The commissioner of GMC, Debasish Sharma in an official release on Monday, made public the amount of tax not paid by these institutions. According to him, more than 200 institutions have pending taxes in the region of ₹7 crores.
Mr. Sharma specified that a total of 250 educational institutions are yet to pay taxes amounting to ₹7 crores. The list included leading institutions from Guwahati that had evaded taxes for over 10 years.
Some of the noted institutions were Don Bosco in Pan Bazar, Maharishi Vidya Mandir, Royal Global, Assam Jatiya Vidyalaya, NPS School, Srimanta Shankardev, Gurukul, among others, have evaded from paying taxes to the GMC.
The GMC has given these institutions a period of one month to pay their dues. It also informed that strict action will be taken against officials who allowed these institutions to get away without paying taxes.
Notably, the GMC had earlier sent a notice to the institutions asking them to respond within one month, stating the reason for not paying their dues over such a long period.
According to the release issued by the commissioner, Don Bosco has dues to the tune of ₹1 crore. The GMC has meanwhile issued notices to these institutions to clear their dues within one month. Further course of action in case of non-payment, would be discussed later, it said.
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