Updated on: Wednesday, September 09, 2009
New Delhi: Indian institutes offering foreign degrees in collaboration with institutes overseas are under taxmen's lens, with the Revenue Department examining taxability of payments made to overseas collaborators.
'Indian partners are making huge payments to the foreign collaborators for use of their brand name and services and are incurring substantial expenditure to advertise their brand name in India. These payments may need to be examined for taxability in India as royalty or business income,' an official said.
As per a recent study by the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), more than 130 educational institutes are collaborating with foreign institutions and offering foreign degrees.
Indian institutes, which offer foreign degrees, do a lot of marketing work on behalf of their overseas partners and charge hefty fee from the students.
Under the existing norms, an Indian institute can run technical education programmes in collaboration with foreign institutes after seeking approval of the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), the regulatory body responsible for maintaining standards of education in the field of engineering, architecture, management etc.
Several institutes, which lure students with the prospect of a foreign degree without studying abroad, operate without the requisite approval from the AICTE.