THIS is apropos the article ‘Taxing elite schools and hospitals’ (Nov 18) by Afshan Subohi. I would like to appreciate Dawn for highlighting such key economic and social issues with a view to providing awareness and food for thought to the people.

Schools and hospitals are the basic services which are availed of by every person. I myself have completed graduation and master’s degree from a university which charged exorbitant fee.

Similarly, hospitals and consultants also charge a huge amount of money from every segment of society. These two institutions of society are the most profitable businesses in Pakistan.

I appreciate federal and provincial governments’ efforts for bringing these elite schools and hospitals into the income and sales tax net. I hope that Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan will also be able to bring these elite institutions into the ambit of sales/service tax in the next budget.

I suggest that all revenues from this particular tax on elite schools and hospitals/consultants should be earmarked to a fund which finances the schooling and hospitalisation of people belonging to the less privileged class of our society.

Ramin Shamim
Karachi

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RECENTLY, the principal of a private school, apart from the monthly fee, has asked parents to pay additional Rs500 as annual fee. Students cannot afford to pay the monthly fee which has increased phenomenally. How would they be able to this additional annual fee?

While the school demands a high fee, it lacks basic needs like lack of enough chairs, clean drinking water, electricity, etc. When a private school is in this condition, what can we expect at government schools?

Imran Sattar
Turbat

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2019