Assam Primary Teachers' Body Objects to TAN and GSTIN Mandate for Primary Schools

The Assam State Primary Teachers' Association (ASPTA) has written to the Secretary of the School Education Department, raising strong objections to a directive requiring primary schools to open and maintain TAN (Tax Deduction and Collection Account Number) and GSTIN (Goods and Services Tax Identification Number) accounts.

The directive, based on an earlier communication from Samagra Shiksha, Assam (SSA), has been circulated to education officials across the state, who have in turn instructed primary schools to mandatorily register for both accounts.

The ASPTA's central concern is straightforward: no guidance has been provided on how schools are expected to bear the financial and administrative costs that come with maintaining these accounts.

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Maintaining a TAN account is not a simple administrative formality. Under the Income Tax Act, 1961, it requires schools to file quarterly income tax returns — with deadlines falling on July 31, October 31, January 31, and May 31 each year.

Missing these deadlines carries a penalty of Rs 200 per day, with fines potentially reaching Rs 10,000.

The GSTIN compliance requirements go further. Schools would be required to maintain detailed books of accounts for supplies and tax records, issue proper GST invoices, preserve records for at least six years, and file monthly or quarterly returns.

Together, these obligations would effectively require primary schools to function with the compliance infrastructure of a registered business entity.

The ASPTA pointed out that managing such procedures would realistically require hiring Chartered Accountants, whose fees range between Rs 500 and Rs 2,000. No funding mechanism has been outlined to cover these costs.

The staffing problem runs deeper. Compliance tasks of this nature are ordinarily handled by Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) — but most primary schools in Assam do not even have fully appointed head teachers, let alone officials with DDO powers.

The association also flagged a pattern it described as deeply problematic: directives are issued without budget allocations, with verbal suggestions that schools meet expenses from internal resources — despite strict rules governing how such funds can be spent.

The ASPTA has urged the government to reconsider the directive entirely, and has appealed for measures to protect primary teachers from harassment and legal complications that could arise from non-compliance with requirements they are structurally ill-equipped to meet.

The letter reflects a wider concern about the gap between administrative directives and ground-level realities in Assam's primary school system — where resource constraints are chronic and staffing gaps are widespread.