Telangana bars school fee hike, rent collection for three months

Hyderabad: Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Sunday said the government has barred private educational institutions from hiking their fees for the 2020-21 academic year and for house owners not to collect rent for March, April and May from tenants.
The chief minister announced that the Cabinet had resolved unanimously to pass an order under the Epidemic Disaster Management Act, 1879 directing private institutions not to enhance the fee.

“Private managements are not being allowed to enhance a single paisa. They are allowed to collect only the tuition fee, that too on a monthly basis. If they are found collecting any other fee they will be held liable and their registrations will be cancelled immediately,” he said.

He said the Cabinet also resolved unanimously to pass an order against lan-dlords collecting rent so as to give tenants some relief during the crisis.

Addressing a press conference at Pragati Bhavan, the Chief Minister said houseowners that rent for the three months can be recovered at a later stage in instalments. He cautioned houseowners that if they charge any interest on rent for these three months, they will face penal action.

The chief minister announced that the Cabinet had decided to allow the collection of property tax in municipalities and corporations till May 31 without any compounding fee.

The Cabinet also decided to defer the fixed power charges to industries which were closed during the lockdown period. The tariff will be recovered at a later stage in instalments.

The Cabinet also decided to give one per cent rebate on power charges to the pharma industry, rice, flour and dal mills, if they paid their power charges within the due date.

The Chief Minister announced that the Cabinet had directed the authorities to use marriage function halls as temporary godowns for storage of fertilisers for the ensuing kharif season. He said that it was expected that agriculture operations would take place on 1.35 crore acres during the kharif season, for which 21.5 lakh metric tonnes of fertilisers is required. This huge quantity of fertilisers will be stored in marriage function halls.