The news of tax-free ancillary fees at The College of The Bahamas (COB) has sparked an outpour of appreciation to the Prime Minister from students who struggled with paying fees since the implementation of value-added tax (VAT) on January 1, 2015.

During the 2016/2017 budget communication on Wednesday, Prime Minister Perry Christie announced that the government is "proposing to ... exempt from VAT, ancillary fees paid along with tuition fees" administered by COB.

Over the past year, hundreds of students at the college took to social and traditional media and even demonstrated, to bring light to their belief that it is "unfair to place a tax on anything pertaining to education".

President of The College of The Bahamas Union of Students (COBUS) Keyron Smith told The Nassau Guardian that he was once one of those students.

Now, he said, he is more than grateful to the prime minister for the "long overdue" initiative.

"To see the prime minster come out and give that announcement is not only a relief but its something that will greatly benefit the student body and allow more students the opportunity to come to the college," he said.

"It will also prevent more students from dropping out because they cannot afford to pay the fees.

"Paying VAT on fees was initially a complaint we had as students because it was/is such a difficult time for the economy and in addition to coping with that, students were forced to pay VAT for educational fees.

"In fact, in the university draft bill, the council level of the school was seeking to ensure that our students would not endure these fees and its something that we fought for and now, we don't have to do that."

Ashley Whitney, who graduated from the college this week, said even as a scholarship student, she had to come up with a number of fees including VAT; a task she said is "not easy" for some.

Whitney said she is happy that other students who will follow her will not have to pay extra, especially, those who cannot afford to.

"I feel like it was an excellent move," she said.

"Although I'm a student who was on a scholarship, I still had to come up with those extra funds for fees and, of course, VAT was a part of that.

"This move is a great start, especially for students that were already having complications with the expenses of COB, because while we have a lot of students who are on scholarship, there are a lot of students who pay their own school fees out of pocket."

Agreeing with Whitney were current students Carlton Knowles and Jordan Phillips, among many others.

Andrew Gomez who is also a recent COB graduate, although somewhat content by the prime minster's comments said, "It's not that big of a deal".

"In regards to COB, VAT hasn't significantly increased our school fees," he said.

"VAT wasn't placed on tuition but on fees for the library, gym, and things of that sort.

"With VAT being removed from the ancillary fees, it is a good step forward because students wouldn't have to pay that extra amount anymore, but it isn't a significant difference.

"People were just making a big deal out of it.

"At the end of the day, I guess it is less money that you have to pay as a student so it is something to be grateful for."

Education services including tuition-funded courses and schools and programs leading to graduate and undergraduate degrees were already exempt from the tax, according to the VAT Act.

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