Fund crunch: PU to take measures to curtail spending

CHANDIGARH:With Panjab University staring at a major fund gap amid the the Covid-19 pandemic, a panel has been formed under dean university instructions (DUI) RK Singla to decide on austerity measures for curtailing spending.

PU’s finance and development officer Vikram Nayyar confirmed the constitution of the committee, which is to meet on Thursday.

As the university has decided to take classes online for the first semester of 2020-21 session, it will not earn any income from its hostels. According to the budget for 2020-21 approved by the PU senate in its December 2019 meeting, the estimated revenue for the year from hostels was pegged at ₹11 crore.

Examination fee is one of the main revenues for PU. Though it had received the examination fee from students for the last academic term, uncertainty looms if the exams of all semesters will be conducted in December. “We do not know when this pandemic will be over and the issue is that if the exams could not be conducted for the next semester as well, the university will not get the revenue as it is expecting in the form of examination fee,” said a PU senator wanting anonymity.

According to the estimates for 2020-21, the revenue from examination fee was pegged at ₹157.50 crore.

Already the varsity in its syndicate has indefinitely deferred the annual fee hike in all traditional and self-financed courses for the 2020-21 academic session in the wake of the pandemic. It will be for the first time in many years that PU might not implement the annual fee hike due to which the additional finances will be affected. It was learnt that the university was expecting additional funds of around ₹80-90 lakh from the fee hike. As per the estimates, the income from the traditional teaching departments was slated to increase by 16% in 2020-21 compared to 2019-20.

PU had grappled with dwindling finances in the past years as well. Moreover, in recent days, its students have demanded the semester fee be waived off amid the pandemic, adding to PU’s financial woes.

However, the varsity has not been able to cut its spending so far. Now, the panel constituted by it will take austerity measures for the university’s expenditure.