Hyderabad: The Telangana government is planning to levy a professional tax on the 11,000-odd private unaided schools and their teaching staff with a view to boost revenues of the state.

School Education Director Naveen Nicholas issued orders a couple of days ago to all the District Education Officers (DEO) to oversee the collection of property tax from private schools and their teaching staff, cautioning them that failure to collect the tax will attract disciplinary action.

He also warned that private unaided institutions not paying professional tax will face legal action.

Nicholas stated that as per the Telangana Professional Tax Act, 1987, all employees engaged in the education profession and various business professions need to pay professional tax. He also said that the owners of institutions and businesses engaging professionals need to deduct professional tax and deposit it with the state government.

As per reports, the Education Department has been working out the modalities of the tax initiative with the Department of Commercial Tax.

Reports state that if the professional tax is collected from private unaided institutions in the current financial year, which ends on March 31, the state’s exchequer will gain revenues.

There are also speculations about whether the state government is going to levy the professional tax in the current financial year, from the next year or retrospectively for the past few years.