The Tughlak-style decision of the State Government to cancel common entrance test (CET) for post graduate courses might have disappointed students and parents, but banks are likely to make a neat profit of a little over Rs 20 lakh.

Applicants for PG admissions were required to pay an application fee of Rs 400 (Rs 200 for SC/ST students) by DD drawn in favour of Mysore University, which used to hold the test.

The commission for each DD works out to Rs 30. With the government deciding not to hold PGCET, each applicant will have to shell out Rs 60 to cancel the DD - a total loss of Rs 90. As nearly 29,000 applications have been received by the University, the banks are set to net more than Rs 20 lakh.

According to sources, the DDs of Mysore University have been deposited in the banks and their fee would be returned either by cash or cheque. About 6,000 students had submitted applications at Mysore alone.

Other universities have been asked not to deposit the DDs and, instead, return them to the students.

When Deccan Herald asked a bank official whether there was a provision for waiver of cancellation charges, he said it was not generally done. “In the case of a high-value customer, the bank management may  consider waiver depending on the circumstance. But generally we do not entertain such requests”, he added.

Asked whether the bank was considering a waiver for students, he only said, “we will have to wait and see the developments”.

Minister for Higher Education D H Shankaramurthy admitted that the students would be losing money. “The government will convene a meeting on Monday to discuss what best could be done in the interest of students. We have holidays for the next two days”. When asked whether they would consider some scheme to offset the loss of money for the students, the Minister replied that they would try to help the students.

According to sources in the bank, even cancellation of the DD may not be an easy task for students.

Most of the banks insist on the counterfoil of the DD when it was bought. Though it is not mandatory, banks do insist on it for easy cancellation.

As per the procedure, the applicant has to pay Rs 60 first and then submit a written application for cancellation of the DD.

After that, the applicant will have to wait for at least half an hour for the bank to return his Rs 200 or Rs 400.

“In some cases, it may take more than an hour also, depending on the rush in the bank,” sources added.

Fee to be refunded
Students will get refund of the application fee which they had paid to apply for the now scrapped PGCET from the universities to which they had applied. However, no time frame has been fixed by the government for the refund.

University of Mysore which had been entrusted with the task of conducing the tests for 11 PG courses will soon write to other universities to refund the application fee paid by the aspirants.

“We are waiting for further instruction from the government but all applicants will get refund”, the university Registrar B J Hosmath told Deccan Herald.

“The DDs paid by the students for application forms are still with the respective universities. We will intimate the universities to return it to the students. The modalities of the same will be worked out by Tuesday” Dr Hosmath said.