Union Budget 2022: Education sector seeks higher allocation in overall budget

The sector also wants government to reduce GST on Educational Services from 18% to 5%,

New Delhi: The Education sector expects the government to shift a lot of focus to the Education sector in this version of the budget.

"Last year, the Government slashed its allocation towards Education in the Annual Budget by 6%, amounting to a total allocation of Rs. 93,223 crores, against Rs. 99,311 crores in the year before that. This year, we expect the Government to increase allocation by around 10%, since last year the 6% slash was attributed to funds allocation towards healthcare and other emergency services," said Lehar Tawde is the Co-founder of ConnectEd Technologies.

The pandemic’s impact on the education system, particularly the public education system, has increased reliance of all students on supplementary sources of education that are provided by private organisations. Traditionally, such sources have been categorized under ‘Educational Services’ and taxed at 18% under Goods & Services Tax (GST). We expect the Government to revise the GST rate for this category to 5%, thereby easing the financial pressure on the students’ parents, particularly those from lower and middle class families, he added.

Varun Chopra, CEO, Eduvanz said, "Last year’s budget announcement made room for a reduction in minimum loan sizes which helped both organizations and individuals. We hope that this year’s budget will include allowances for Non-Banking Finance companies, helping us to expand and maintain cash liquidity in this competitive ecosystem."

Maninder Singh Bajwa, CEO and Founder, iScuela said, "I am hoping the budget has announcements on regulation and framework to help the EdTech sector flourish. Additionally there should be increased support towards startups and small-mid enterprises in the EdTech space. In the last few years, we have witnessed an increased focus of the government on eLearning in the public sector. As smartphone and internet penetration continues, we are hopeful that there will be various initiatives accelerating eLearning programs across the nation. This will slowly but surely go a long way in bridging the digital divide."

Prateek Bhargava, Founder and CEO, Mindler said, “The pandemic changed the way education was perceived and opened a myriad of opportunities and innovation. This also brought into the limelight the huge inequality in terms of access of resources and quality of learning. In the budget 2022, I look forward to seeing a massive focus towards a robust and improved digital infrastructure. While the government has put a lot of emphasis and come up with various initiatives to help students and stakeholders, ensuring adoption will require a lot of focus on making these solutions accessible.”

Akhand Swaroop Pandit founder of Catalyst Group, an online platform expects that a longer duration of tax exemption will be included in the budget.

"Reduce interest on education loans to help students to lessen  the financial burden of students aspiring for higher education, but are reeling under economic stress in this unusual situation," said Debashis Sanyal, Director - Great Lakes Institute of Management.