Turning its sights on malpractices by certain private educational institutes in the state, the Assam government on Monday announced that such institutes will not be able to increase fees at their convenience.

The government is tightening its grip on institutions that are “running businesses in the name of education”.

According to reports, any increase in monthly fees will be subject to the approval from a ‘Fee Regulatory Committee’.

Schools in Assam will now be required to notify the fee structure in each academic year. They will have to submit a report to the committee before finalizing the fee structure.

The government informed that the deadline for submission of applications will be October 31 for each academic year.

Failure to submit the application within the stipulated time shall result in a fine, the government added. It further mentioned that the fine amount has been fixed at Rs 10,000.

Moreover, those institutes submitting their applications after the October 31 deadline, will have an additional fine of Rs 5,000 added to that.

Meanwhile, the committee will decide on the fees for the institutes that do not finalize their fee structures in the stipulated time.