PESHAWAR, May 14 The private educational institutions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have declined to pay the value added tax and demanded of the government to exempt the private schools from the VAT.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday All Pakistan Private Schools Management Association (APPSMA) (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter) president Dr Zakir Shah said that the VAT was not acceptable to the management of schools and termed it an unwise decision.

The association president was also flanked by other office-bearers including Memona Musarrat, Malik Mohammad Sarfaraz, Abdul Naeem Bukhari and Inamullah.

Dr Zakir said the government should encourage private schools instead of creating problems by imposing taxes on them.

The rulers, he said were morally bound to support the private educational institutions instead of discouraging them as these institutions were imparting education to at least 20 million children in the country and thus supporting the government cause of increasing the literacy rate.

“We want to convey our resentment through the media and appeal to the government for reversal of the decision otherwise the All Pakistan Private Schools Management Association will have the only option to launch a country-wide protest campaign in this regard,” Dr Zakir said.

Dr Zakir said that the private educational institutes were paying different kinds of taxes to the government and imposing more taxes would prevent deserving children from getting education as it would put extra burden on their parents.

He suggested that the rulers should control their expenditures to avoid financial crisis, saying by taking loans from the IMF would further add to the miseries of the people.

The APPSMA provincial head said that this decision would cause the closure of many schools as they were unable to pay heavy taxes.

To a question, he said that under the prevailing circumstances it was difficult for the managements of the schools to meet their expenses.

He said it was the responsibility of the government to impart education to the citizens but it was unable to do so in the prevailing circumstances.

He said there were 160,000 private schools in Pakistan which were giving a helping hand to the government in educating the new generation.