Thiruvananthapuram: The fees for MBBS course at private self-financing medical colleges in Kerala was on Monday fixed at Rs5.5 lakh for the 2017-18 academic year by a government-appointed committee.

The admission and fees regulatory committee, headed by Justice R. Rajendra Babu, said the fees was “provisional".

Referring to the NRI (non-resident Indian) quota, which comprises 15% of the total seats, the fees fixed was Rs20 lakh, an order issued by the committee said.

On the demand of some medical colleges to fix the fees at Rs15 lakh, the committee said the demand appeared to be prima facie “exorbitant, exploitative and profiteering".

“The above fixed fee is provisional and applicable to all self-financing medical colleges, including deemed universities, subject to the regulation by the committee, as per law," it said.

If there will be any difference in the fee structure after the final fee regulation, appropriate orders would be issued later, the order said.

In case of complaints, the committee’s decision would be binding on the parties, subject to the judicial review of the court, it said. The order also directed the managements of self-financing medical colleges to submit within two months all relevant documents to fix the tuition fees of medical colleges.

The panel also said that it required time to call for the documents for fixing the final tuition fee.

According to the order, the provisional fees was fixed after scrutinising previous agreements and the income collected by medical colleges as fees.

It pointed out that the NEET entrance examination result had been published and the Supreme Court had directed to close the date of admissions by September.

Meanwhile, Opposition leader in the state assembly, Ramesh Chennithala, criticised the new fees structure, holding that students belonging to BPL (below poverty line) category also had to pay the same fee as those by financially sound students.

With the new fees structure, the Left Democratic Front government had destroyed the “social security" existing in the self-financing sector in medical education, he alleged.

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