The Central government earned more than Rs 192 crore from the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) fees in 2019, according to information received under the RTI.
The NEET is held for admission to MBBS, BDS and other such courses in medical colleges. Neet 2019 was held on May 5 this year for which online application fees was fixed at Rs 1400 for general and OBC category candidates and Rs 750 for SC/ST candidates. Out of the 15,19,375 candidates who applied for the NEET exam, only 14,10,755 candidates appeared.
Replying to a RTI query from Neemuch-based activist Chandrashekhar Gaud, the National Testing Agency which conducts the NEET exam and comes under the Human Resources Development ministry, said it collected Rs 192,43,22,162 as entrance fees from the 15,19,375 candidates, who enrolled themselves for the exam in 2019.
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Though the National Testing Agency, which conducts the exam claims to be a not-for-profit organisation that makes arrangements for the exams from the funds collected through fees, it is yet to give details of how it spends the Rs 192 crore it collected this year.
The RTI activist said that the National Testing Agency must clarify how much it spent on the conduct of the exam in public interest.
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This is not the first time the Centre earned such a whopping amount from the candidates. The Medical Council Committee (MCC) in 2018 earned more than Rs 18 crore through the online counselling process while it spent only Rs 2.76 crore on the its conduct, the RTI revealed.
This means that in 2018, the MCC earned a profit of Rs 15.56 crore. What happened to this amount is not known.
The testing agency, when asked, refused to give details about the fees determination process citing various rules of RTI.
Courtesy: TOI
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