Tamil Nadu Nursery, Primary, Matriculation and Higher Secondary Schools Welfare Association has appealed to Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram to take steps for ensuring the withdrawal of service tax imposed on private schools.

The Commissioner of Central Excise had recently issued a circular to such schools asking them to register all auxiliary educational services and pay service tax on the fee collected for these services.

Schools will have to pay service tax for food, transportation, extra-curricular activities, excursions and field trips.

Association general secretary G. Krishnaraj told journalists here on Saturday that the 12 per cent service tax imposed by the Centre would place a huge burden on small and medium schools.

These schools were already facing financial constraints owing to the “low fee levels” fixed by the School Fee Determination Committee headed by retired High Court Judge S.R. Singaravelu.

He also made a plea to Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to remove some of the State taxes on private schools and restore the concessions that were scrapped in recent years.

The association passed a resolution calling upon private schools to join it in a State-wide protest on August 26 to press their demands.

Further, they also requested the committee formed by the Department of School Education to look into land requirements for private schools to consider fixing the norms based on the numbers of students at the schools.

Schools must be given time till the next academic year to implement the committee’s recommendations, the association said.