BENGALURU: The professional colleges in the state may be asked to collect fees exceeding `20,000, by means of cheque, and not by cash.Considering the complaint that most colleges were collecting fees in the form of cash, the Admission Overseeing Committee is set to recommend to the government to bring amendments to the Karnataka Professional Education Institutions Act 2006 and insist colleges to collect fees through cheque.
This thought comes after the committee received a forwarded complaint from Prime Minister’s Officer (PMO) where an anonymous person had complained to the PMO alleging a particular college in the state demanding 50% fee amount in cash.It was mentioned in the complaint filed before the PMO that Sahyadri Engineering College located in Mangaluru, a private engineering college, had forced parents to pay one part of the fee to the college by cash only.
Justice B Manohar, chairman, Admission Overseeing Committee, Karnataka Examinations Authority, said, provisions of the Income Tax (I-T) Act let them lay down such a mandate. “Section 269 (SS) of the Income Tax Act’s chapter 20B has a provision where colleges can be asked to collect fee only by means of a cheque if it exceeds `20,000.”
However, the committee is contemplating discussing this in the upcoming meeting of the committee and submit the same to government recommending an amendment.Considering the complaint, the committee sought explanation from the college where it was clarified that the college had said 80% of the seats were being filled by KEA and 20% under COMEDK quota wherein the consortium filled the seats and fee collected would be through cheques, DD or Electronic transfer, said college.