FATHI proposes Trust Bank System for fee reimbursement in Telangana

The federation asked the government to either establish the 'Trust Bank System' by August 31 or immediately release Rs 1,500 crore in fee dues for which tokens were issued

Hyderabad: As the State government is failing to clear the tuition fee dues to private colleges on time, the Federation of Association of Technical Higher Education Institutions (FATHI) on Monday proposed a ‘Trust Bank System’, a revised and self-sustainable fee-funding scheme, for generating funds. The new model, according to colleges, aims to reduce the financial burden on the State government to zero.

According to the FATHI, which comprises private professional colleges, the ‘Trust Bank System’ to be established as per the RBI guidelines can run with components, including seed fund to the tune of Rs 1500 crore from the State government, interest waiver from Central government schemes (Rs 300 crore), cess on various business sectors (Rs 375 crore), and corpus fund from educational institutions (Rs 389 crore).

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The system, according to colleges, can also cover interest on current operational deposits from educational institutions (Rs 2,500 crore), interest on current operational deposits from the State government universities and institutions (Rs 1,000 crore). Overall, the colleges proposed to generate Rs 1 lakh crore through funding and use the interest from it for fee reimbursement.

As per the model that was presented to Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and Chief Secretary K Ramakrishan Rao here, government organisations and undertakings, private corporations, NGOs and Philanthropists could collaborate with the government to raise the funds for scholarships. “These entities can be incentivised through tax benefits, CSR credits, and public recognition,” the FATHI said.

The federation asked the government to either establish the ‘Trust Bank System’ by August 31 or immediately release Rs 1,500 crore in fee dues for which tokens were issued. They also sought the release of remaining dues up to 2023-24 within the next three months and 2024-25 fee dues within six months.

FATHI representatives, led by chairman Dr N Ramesh Babu, Ravi KS, Ravinder Reddy, Dr K Ramadas, Dr Suneel Kumar and Pradeep Reddy, among others, took part in the meeting.