Doctors' body urges TAFRC to cut Category-A PG medical fees in Telangana

The Healthcare Reforms Doctors Association (HRDA) has approached the Telangana Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee (TAFRC) with a request to bring down tuition fees for postgraduate MD and MS courses offered under Category-A, also known as the Competent Authority or Convenor quota, in private medical colleges for the 2023-2026 block period.

The representation was submitted to the TAFRC chairman on Monday. HRDA president Karthik Nagula argued that since Category-A postgraduate seats are filled through the Competent Authority quota on the basis of NEET-PG merit, the fee charged for them ought to stay reasonable and within reach, especially for students from middle-class and lower middle-class backgrounds.

The association anchored its demand in a National Medical Commission (NMC) office memorandum dated February 3, 2022. That memorandum states that fees for 50% of seats in private medical colleges and deemed universities should match the fee levied in government medical colleges in the same State or Union Territory. It further provides that this benefit should first go to candidates admitted through the government quota and, where government quota seats make up less than half the sanctioned strength, to other candidates selected on merit.

HRDA also drew a comparison with the existing undergraduate fee structure. It noted that the Category-A MBBS tuition fee stands at ₹60,000 a year, while the Category-B fee in private medical colleges runs to roughly ₹11.55 lakh to ₹13 lakh a year. According to the association, this gap shows that a lower fee can be sustained for merit-based Competent Authority seats while a differential fee is retained for other categories.

Citing NMC guidelines, the association said fee fixation should factor in actual operating costs, audited financial accounts and relevant expenditure, while keeping to the principle that medical education must be run on a not-for-profit basis.