Puducherry fixes fees for UG, PG medical, and dental courses

Puducherry: The Puducherry government decided to maintain the status quo regarding the fee structure for all undergraduate and postgraduate medical and dental courses for government and management quotas for the academic year 2022-23 in private institutions in the Union territory.

The government fixed ₹16 lakh as fees for management quota and ₹20 lakh for NRI quota for MBBS course in Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims), Sri Manakula Vinayagar Medical College and Hospital (SMVMCH) and Sri Venkateshwaraa Medical College and Hospital (SVMCH). The government fixed ₹3.8 lakh as fees for government quota in Pims and in SMVMCH and ₹3.3 for government quota in SVMCH for MBBS course.

The government fixed ₹7.6 lakh as fees for PG medical courses (clinical) and ₹6.2 lakh as fees for PG medical courses (non-clinical) for government quota in Pims, SMVMCH and SVMCH. It fixed ₹22.8 lakh as fees for postgraduate medical courses (clinical) and ₹12.4 lakh as fees for postgraduate medical courses (non-clinical) for management quota in the three private institutions.

The government fixed ₹6.2 lakh as fees for PG dental (clinical) and ₹5.5 lakh as fees for PG dental (para-clinical) courses for government quota and ₹14 lakh as fees for PG dental (clinical) and ₹7.2 lakh as fees for PG dental (para-clinical) courses for management quota. The fee for UG nursing courses in three private institutions was fixed at ₹42,000.

Earlier, the fee committee proposed to hike the fees for UG and PG dental courses and nursing courses for all quotas. But the committee, which convened thrice this year, pointed out that the private institutions did not submit segment-wise statements of accounts and hence it faced difficulties in arriving at the income and expenses. The government finally decided to maintain the status quo on fee structure in the absence of proper justification for the proposed fee hike.