School administration apologises ‘after charging VAT for services’

An educational facility in the Kingdom has apologised after incorrectly charging VAT to their services. The educational facility, a private school, allegedly charged VAT on some of their services, which put it under scrutiny from the public and the authorities.

According to sources, the school authorities were unaware of the fact that the educational services have been excluded from VAT. However, the school has amended the fees structure and removed all VAT charges. According to sources, the items that VAT was added to include school uniforms, food, and stationary.

Reports about the situation were also circulated on social media. The matter was brought to the attention of the Ministry of Education. The ministry revealed that the school principal had clarified that the addition of VAT to the prices was an error. It added that the school had informed the ministry that steps would be taken to rectify the error. “With regard to what was circulated on social media on a school adding VAT charges to its services, on various items including school uniform food, and stationary, Assistant Undersecretary for Private and Continuous Education at the Ministry of Education, Jaffar Al Setri, stated that the Department of Private Education has followed up with the situation.

“The department has received an email from the principal of the school apologising for what happened and assured that the error would be corrected,” the ministry stated.