New Delhi: In a move that could dishearten the aspiring engineers, the National Testing Agency (NTA) has hiked the registration charge for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) mains by up to 146% from this year.
The increase in fee would help the NTA boost its annual earning by at least ₹45-50 crore, as compared to previous year’s collection, said a senior officer. The agency, however, did not cite any reason for the substantial hike in the fee amount across all the segments and classes.
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A section of the officials said that various government organisations and agencies are out to substantially increase their earnings owing to growing popularity of PM Narendra Modi and his unchallengeable image among the masses, particularly those in the young generation. “The youths will hardly bother paying a bit extra in order to pursue their engineering dreams. After all, cost of everything, goods or services, is going up and people are unfazed,” said the officer, in a candid talk with Khabarinfra.
As per the notification issued by the NTA regarding revised fee structure, female candidates of general category, who were earlier paying ₹325 as registration free for JEE (mains) will have to pay ₹800 per paper, which is arout 146% up from the last year. Similarly, male students of general, economically weaker section (EWS) and other backward classes (OBC) category are deemed to pay ₹1,000 this year as registration charge against ₹800 last year.
The registration charge for reserved category students like scheduled castes (SC), scheduled tribes (ST) and persons with disability (PwD) has also been jacked up to ₹500 from ₹325 last year.
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A JEE expert said that the new fee pattern would put a slight burden on the students, though it would offer the NTA a good opportunity to raise its income. “Moreover, the cost of study in the government institutions has also gone up manifold over the past few years,” he said.
Last year, as many as 1026799 students have registered themselves for the JEE (mains). This year, it may see about 5% increase, if previous trends are any hint. NTA had gained ₹40 crore as fee from general, EWS and OBC categories males, which is likely to go up to ₹65 crore this year. Similarly, the female students of general, EWS and OBC are likely to pay ₹20.90 crore against the last year’s deposit of ₹8.49 lakh.
Likewise, the NTA is set to get the fee deposit of ₹5 crore from the SC/ST & PwD students this year. These class of students had last year paid ₹3.31 crore last year.
