#NoVATonEducation #SubsidizePrivateUniversityTuitionFees

Bangladesh govt. recently passed a legislation for imposing 7.5% VAT on the tuition fees of the Private Universities in Bangladesh. Initially it was 10% and, according to the Finance Minister of Bangladesh Govt., it was reduced to 7.5% on request of the Prime Minister. There has been lots of debates on this VAT and most of the arguments were against the VAT on the tuition fees. Govt. imposed VAT on private universities tuition fees before but had to cancel the imposition due to severe student protest. However, this time govt. remains adamant on their decision. This even led  petition to Court of Law. However, nothing appears to influence govt. decision regarding this matter.

Today I stumbled upon a news from an online news portal of a national daily. Screen shot of the news is given below. You will find the URL of the news in the screenshot. In the news Finance Minister of Bangladesh Govt. will not reduce VAT on private universities tuition fees.  He didn’t even mentioned the cancellation of VAT in Tuition fee. The news also states that he doesn’t support the students who are protesting. Well, that is expected. He is the one who is behind imposition of VAT on education. We don’t expect him to oppose his decisions. But he should have considered that he is enhancing the cost of education and education is the basic right of every people of this country. This effectively means govt. is violating the basic right of its citizen.

The news reports that finance minister’s logic behind imposing VAT is “private university students should pay VAT on education because they pay higher tuition fee”. This is an absurd logic! He might have forgotten that we have a faulty education system that led to demand and emergence of private universities in Bangladesh. Private universities had demand because our public universities couldn’t accommodate all the students who pass colleges.

Every year millions of students pass the higher secondary exam. But only a thousands get the opportunity to get admission in public universities. Most of the student get admissions in National University or the private universities. Student looses 3 to 4 years of their life when they get admitted at National University due to session jam. And other public universities are full of political activities and violence. Under this circumstances public universities acts as blessing for the students whom govt. failed to provide higher education.

Govt. may argue that govt. universities has high standards on admission and those students have that standards. This will depict that standards in our primary and secondary education have are abnormally low. Govt. should set the standard high. Also Govt. has the obligation to make sure that those students who couldn’t get in to public universities continues getting higher education without the lose of 4/5 years of their life. Private universities are giving students continuing their higher education without loosing part of their life. But this opportunity comes with a high price. Except the reach students, most of the students’ family has to struggle and forgo lots of necessary expenses to provide adequate funding for the future of their children. Here govt. should subsidize the private university tuition fees too in order to ensure higher education of its citizen.

By charging VAT on education, Govt. have started a discrimination. They are providing tremendous subsidy for the students of the public universities and now they are charging taxes on their failure. By failure here I indicating that students have to pay tuition fees to private universities to continue their education which was supposed to be ensured by the state.

Those who supports VAT on Education often argues about the poor condition of the private universities. They also say that many private universities sell certificates instead of teaching. I agree with these scenarios. But that’s not the logic to impose VAT. Instead of imposing VAT, Govt. should be strict on those universities. Govt. may cancel the license of those universities and may even take over for the greater good of the country and its future generations. But imposing VAT on education should not even be the last thing.

Also by considering the economics terms, govt. should avoid imposing VAT on education. According to the economics theories, GDP of a country depends on the input resources which effectively means the labors and knowledge. Now, the knowledge is acquired through education. If VAT is imposed on education, acquiring knowledge will be difficult and input factors will decrease. Decrease in input resources will cause to decline in GDP and ultimately harm the country in the long run. Therefore, imposing VAT will harm the country in the long run. And if we follow the theories of Finance, an investor should choose long-term investment as payoff is higher in long-term asset. Here Govt. is the investor and payoff is the future of this country.

Personally I believe, There should not be any VAT not just on education but also on the medicines and daily necessary foods. Because these are the very basic need of a human being. We are already paying for these items. We should not pay any further for these items. It’s govt.’s duty to ensure the welfare of the people of this country. Instead of charging VAT on private university tuition fees, govt. should at provide subsidy at least 50% on these fees.

Yeah! I’m an app Developer!

I always had a particular interest on programing, software & apps development, web development, video and graphics editing. I learned very few basic codes in DOS, HTML, PHP and Python. Without anyone’s help I hosted some websites with free domains. Also I learned some basic moves in Photoshop. So you see I am little bit familiar with all the things mentioned above. However I never had any software or app development experience. Microsoft game threat opportunity.
Yesterday I attended a free training session on apps development for windows store and windows phone store. The session was organized by Microsoft Bangladesh. They provided us a free developer account and taught us how to make an app without any coding. I used to think making an app requires depth knowledge of programing and coding. But now I see I was wrong. All it requires is a developer account and some idea for the app.
In the training session I was required to open account in Microsoft app studio and Microsoft dev center. the trainers were very helpful and supportive. They showed us how to make an app step by step. It was very easy. I made 4 apps during the 4 hour training session. Today I made another app during my lunch time. it took me nearly 15 minutes to make the app. so you see making an app is not hard at all.
By the way, I have 5 apps in the windows store and windows phone store available for windows 8.1 only. If you have operating system of windows 8.1, don’t forget to check out my apps. you can find them by searching “Cooking Tricks”, “Influential People”, “Cycle Mania”, “Avenger Alliance facts” and “Bengal Tiger” on the windows store.

For a better emplyment

When I got admitted in North South University, BBA degree used to rule the job market. Almost all companies looked for the candidates with BBA degree. But Before I could complete my BBA, job market started to shift toward MBA degree. By the time I completed my graduation, job market totally moved to MBA holders. Now companies look for candidates with MBA holders. They want MBA holders even in the lower posts where graduation is not required.

In other countries MBA is treated as a professional degree like Chartered Accountant (CA), Chartered Management Accountants (CMA) or other degrees. In those countries, number of MBA holders are very few. But in Bangladesh MBA is not a professional degree anymore. It have become an academic course as there are plenty of people with MBA degree.  Because there are lots of MBA holder in the market, BBA holders are falling behind in the job market. Therefore almost all graduates thinks of getting a MBA degree.

Till yesterday, I used to think what new qualification companies might want in their job candidates as there are lots of MBA holders. Today morning I got my answer when I saw a circular. It’s for DBA from IBA. IBA is the first institution in Bangladesh to introduce DBA. DBA means Doctor of Business Administration. It is treated as Ph.D in business sector or business study. I know soon other top universities and then other universities will start offering DBA. And lots of people will run after DBA degree in order to differentiate in job market.

Then I started to think, how long people will study to get a good job? People in our country kept studying and getting new degrees with a dream to get a good job which will give them attractive salary and attractive position. But as this type people increase every day, options increases for the employers too. They want highly qualified candidates for low positions which might not need any qualification at all. As DBA have been introduced in Bangladesh, people will start running after this degree and soon companies will make it a requirement for entry-level jobs.

I was thinking how to avoid dependence on degrees to make a livelihood. The answer I came up with was to avoid the tendency of getting a job. There will always be some new degrees. And people will run after those degrees to differentiate in the job market and get a good job. But if we don’t have any tendency to run after job, we wouldn’t have to take the hassle to achieve those higher degrees. Instead of running after jobs, people should start small businesses. They should become a small entrepreneur. If people don’t want to lead posh lifestyle, small business might be enough to make livelihood and maintain an average lifestyle. The amount of time and money people spends for getting degrees, a person might had a successful business  if those are spent for small business. If people trend to start small business, this country will have lots of small entrepreneurs and who knows, they might become giant entrepreneurs someday.

Terrible exam experience

Today was my first exam of ICMAB December 2012 exam. Today’s exam was scheduled on Intermediate Financial Accounting (IFA). It was my second attempt  of this subject. Last time I had great preparation. Last time I answered 84 out of 100. I was so sure that I will secure at least 60% marks. But as the first ever professional exam, I failed to manage the time. Moreover, luck was not in my favor. And that caused me to fail in Accounting for the first time.

This time I planned to pass the exam by any chance. But my preparation was not good at all. It was completely my fault that I didn’t pay much attention. I though my last time preparation will be enough for me. Moreover, I’m regularly in touch with the accounting processes due to audit in different clients. However, at the eleventh hour I understood that this preparation will not do. So I analyzed the total syllabus and selected to cover 13 topics. I finished revising all the 13 topics before exam. I thought my preparation will be enough to pass the exam.

During the exam, I found that I was familiar with most of the maths and terms. I didn’t know how to solve two math problems. But I figured out the way to do those maths. I was so close but I could not finish them. Moreover, I couldn’t do other maths correctly. My format and procedures were ok. But I might have mistaken during calculation. I didn’t have time to recheck whole math. So I skipped to next one. This way I answered total of 85 out of 100 marks during 3 hours time.

When I returned home, I checked my maths and the accounting processes that I didn’t know. I found that I was so much close to the answer. I could have done it if I gave some more time on those maths. Moreover, little practice of the maths would help me a lot. I don’t know what others think but I found the exam question harder than last time. My exam was terrible compared to the last time. Even though I answered 85 marks, I know that I will not be able to secure even 50% if the total marks. I’m felling sorry for the silly mistakes that I have made.

I should probably start studying this subject once again. But first I must study Cost Accounting. This exam is due on 30th December and I will appear in this exam for the first time. Moreover, I have not yer covered all the topics of the chapter. Right now I must give most of my times on this subject till the exam ends. I’m scared of this subject for a long time. Pray for me so that I can cover all the subjects and have a nice exam preparation. And ultimately pray for me so that I can pass in this subject.

 

Exam preparation & Home alone

All of my family members left me. Don’t get the wrong idea, they didn’t leave me forever but only for a day. They all went to my native village to attend several programs leaving me home alone. Though I was asked to join with them but I refused. I refused because I had my ICMAB exam after a day (now it’s due in the next afternoon). I planned to study whole day and have an excellent preparation for the exam. However, this is not actually what happened.

My family left me last night. I studied couple of hours and then went to bed. Because today was weekend and no one was home, I wake up pretty late. I had to make my own breakfast. While taking my breakfast, I started watching a TV show. It was quite interesting and I kept watching it even after I was done with my breakfast. Then I studied for an hour. It was prayer time when I finished my study session. I said my prayer and then prepared my launch. I was planning to study after launch but I felt sleepy. I slept till evening.

When I woke up, I was felling drowsy. I made a cup of tea and got back to study. When I was done with one topic, I received a phone call from my cousin. He lives nearby and was on my way to my home. He arrived shortly. I left him my laptop and continued my study. After an hour he decided to leave. I suggested to go outside and have tea. When I returned home it was almost 10:30 pm. I started preparing my dinner and I was done with dinner by 11:30.

I was happy when my family left for the day. I was planning to study hard today but couldn’t utilize the day properly. Being home alone does not mean you will get enough time. Anyway, I yet have to cover like 10 topics. I will study some time more for the night. Hopefully I will be able to cover all the topics by tomorrow afternoon. Pray for me and wish me good luck for tomorrow’s exam.

Redwan