Fees of 50% seats in private medical colleges should be on par with govt institutes: NMC

New Delhi: The National Medical Commission (NMC) has decided that the fees of 50 per cent seats in the private medical colleges and deemed universities should be on par with that of government medical colleges of that particular state and Union Territory.

An office memorandum by NMC stated that the benefit of this fee structure would be first made available to those candidates who have availed government quota seats but limited to the extent of 50 per cent of the total sanctioned strength of the institute.

However, if the government quota seats are less than 50 per cent of total sanctioned seats, the remaining candidates would avail the benefit of having to pay a fee equivalent to that in government medical colleges, based purely on merit, the February 3 memo stated.

According to Section 10(1)(i) of the National Medical Commission (NMC) Act, 2019, the panel shall frame guidelines for determination of fees and all other charges for 50 per cent of seats in private medical institutions and deemed to be universities governed under the provisions of this legislation.

The Union government had requested the erstwhile Board of Governors in supersession of erstwhile MCI to prepare the draft fee fixation guidelines for the consideration of the NMC as and when constituted.

An Expert Committee was constituted by the BoG-MCI on November 23, 2019, and later, by the NMC.

The expert panel recommended 26 broad draft guidelines for the determination of fees for MBBS and PG courses and other charges for private medical colleges and deemed to be universities.

The guidelines were uploaded to the NMC Website on May 25 last year inviting public comments. Approximately 1,800 responses were received.