With the Union Budget 2023 being round the corner, the ed-tech industry urges the government to curb the induced 18% of Goods and Service Tax (GST) on edtech products. “Edtech is an important part of the education sector. As books are not taxable, online education content should also be made free to democratise education and increase reach for affordability,” Anil Nagar, founder, CEO, Adda 247, told FE Education.
Akshay Munjal, founder, CEO, Hero Vired further stated that the government is expected to “lower taxes on edtechs or offer tax incentives for companies that invest in edtech.”
In retrospect to last year in Budget 2022, the government called for the establishment of a digital university and emphasised on online education. “Until now, edtech is considered as an alternative mode of education. Government should recognise it as mainstream education in India,” Mohan Lakhamraju, CEO, Great Learning, said.
Furthermore, edtech analysts believe that the government should encourage edtech startups, and provide infrastructural aids to reinforce the edtech practices. “Government support is required for the edtech industry in the form of subsidised schemes and incentives for improvement of online initiatives,” Abhishek Mishra, chief strategy officer, Physics Wallah, said. He further explained that collaboration of the government with edtech companies can improve digitisation and enhance learning outcomes in the education sector.
In addition, according to industry experts, upskilling courses should be recognised parallelly with the mainstream education courses. “Technical skills, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and upskilling programmes are equally important for future workforce development. These courses provided by edtech companies should be made at par with school education,” Nagar said.