PESHAWAR, Sept 12: A meeting of the subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Higher Education, Archives and Libraries was held on Monday under the chairmanship of MPA Ms Rifat Akbar Swati at the opposition chamber of the NWFP Assembly Secretariat.

Members of the NWFP Assembly Anwar Kamal Khan Marwat, Ms Nasreen Khattak and Amanat Shah, Excise and Taxation Secretary Attaullah Khan, Excise and Taxation Director General Abdul Jalil, Additional Secretary Gul Zeb Khan, HERA Chairman Humayun Zia, Private Educational Institutes Management Association vice president Khwaja Yawar Naseer, PEIMA general secretary Nazar Hussain, Secrecy Officer City University Arshad Amin, Deputy Secretary Law Naeem Iqbal and other officers attended the meeting.

The participants of the meeting deliberated upon the issue of property tax imposed on private educational institutions and reserved their recommendations. The office-holders of the private schools management association proposed that private schools should not be charged property tax since they were doing a great service by imparting quality education.

The committee members expressed apprehension that there existed a bulk of institutions that had been established purely for commercial purposes and each of these was saving on property tax.

The chairperson directed the departments concerned to present before the committee details as to when private schools had been declared commercial and to what extent these institutions could be exempted from property tax.

The committee will discuss the issue in detail in its next meeting and it would be decided either to exempt the private schools from property tax or maintain the same as commercial bodies. —PPI