Punjab Unaided Colleges Association (PUCA) organized a round table discussion on “Challenge, Risk & Management of Finance in Unaided Colleges” at Hotel Park View, Sector-24, Chandigarh. Dr. Ajai Dubey, Renowned Financial Expert from Mumbai was the keynote speaker on the occasion; CA, Aneet Goel, CA Manmohan Garg, CA Renu Arora were the other speakers while Dr. Anshu Kataria, President, PUCA presided over the function.Around 100 educationists including Principals, Directors, Chairmen, CFO’s etc of various unaided colleges of Punjab attended the function. The experts from various sectors of finance spoke on Fee Management, Investment in Infrastructure, Donation, Cost Cutting, Taxation, Bank Funding, Private Funding, Foreign Funding, Loan Restructuring, Asset Re-Construction, Non-Performing Assets, One Time Settlement etc.Dubey while interacting with the edupreneurs said that the education industry in India is under huge financial crisis. Lower rate of growth in manufacturing & service sector has resulted into lesser recruitment in industrial & service sectors. Poor Placements have further affected the admissions across the Country. “Further delay by the Government in the release of scholarship has turned many big and small unaided colleges as Non- Performing Assets (NPA) accounts” Dubey added.
CA Manmohan Garg while speaking on the occasion said that the colleges have invested crores of rupees on the land, buildings, infrastructure etc hence they should make the best use of the resources available to them. He further said that under given circumstances the colleges should opt for possible cost cutting methods and increasing the revenue from the resources available to them.CA Renu Arora while speaking said that the Unaided Technical Institutions are fully run by private entrepreneurs and there is no financial support by the Government to the Colleges for their smooth growth and functioning. She further said that the private colleges should be made free from various taxes including Stamp duty, Change in Land Use (CLU), Property Tax, Service Tax, Pollution, Labour Cess etc as these institutions are not commercial houses.CA Aneet Goel while interacting with the edupreneurs said that to gain the economies of scale the colleges need to form small groups so that joint activities can be done by the surrounding colleges like joint teaching, placements, transport, hostel etc. He further said that colleges should go on consolidation phase now as there is enough intake in the colleges now.Various PUCA members including S. Gurcharan Singh (Gulzar Group), S. Gurpreet Singh (General Secretary), Mr. Ashok Garg (Treasurer), Cherry Goyal (Malwa-I Coordinator), Monty Garg (Malwa-II Coordinator), Mr. Ranbir Dhindsa (Polytechnic Association), Mr. Sanjeev Chopra (Doaba Coordinator), Sh. Rajinder Dhanoa, Gen. Secretary, Association of Polytechnic Colleges of Punjab; Sh. Bhupinder Sharma, Gen Secretary, Himachal Pradesh Colleges Association etc were also present on the occasion.