The Punjab Assembly on Monday unanimously passed a bill aimed at capping annual fee hikes by private unaided schools at 5 per cent. On the concluding day of the monsoon session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains tabled the Punjab Regulation of Fee of Un-aided Educational Institutions (Amendment) Bill, 2026 in the House.
Under the bill, no unaided educational institution will be allowed to increase its fee by more than 5 per cent annually. Participating in the discussion, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said the legislation would cover around 7,800 private schools across Punjab and directly benefit nearly 32 lakh students. Mann said the 5 per cent cap would provide significant relief to parents and stressed that the ceiling would apply not only to tuition fees but also to all mandatory charges and funds collected by schools.
According to the bill, the definition of fee includes all amounts charged by schools, including tuition fees, development fees, annual charges, activity charges, smart class or technology charges, transportation charges where these are not separately contracted, laboratory and library charges, examination charges and other funds. The legislation also provides for refunds to parents in cases where cumulative fee increases by educational institutions have exceeded 15 per cent over the previous three years. The provision is intended to address cases where parents have already faced substantial increases in school fees in recent years.
The bill was introduced through an amendment to the Punjab Regulation of Fee of Unaided Educational Institutions Act, 2016, strengthening the existing regulatory framework governing fees charged by private schools in the state. With the Assembly unanimously clearing the legislation, the state government has sought to impose a uniform ceiling on annual fee increases while bringing the various mandatory charges levied by private schools within the ambit of the cap.