Education

Students under TELS to have tenancy agreement

January 3, 2020 12:45 pm

The Fiji Revenue and Customs Service have raised issues concerning parents or spouse’s renting out flats to their own children or spouse, who are under the Tertiary Education Loans Scheme.

The Fiji Revenue and Customs Service have raised issues concerning parents or spouse’s renting out flats to their own children or spouse.

FRCS Chief Executive Visvanath Das says they’ve also come across instances where other TELS students were subletting flats to new students acting as landlords.

In previous years, FRCS had instances where unregistered landlords were making agreements with students under Tertiary Loans and Scholarship Scheme and not declaring rental income to FRCS.

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FRCS Chief Executive Visvanath Das says all students who are under TELS and are renting out should have a tenancy agreement done.

Das says the agreement should be witnessed by a Justice of Peace or Commissioner of Oaths before taking it to FRCS for Stamp Duty.

He adds once the tenancy agreement is stamped, then only students will be able to claim rent allowance.

FRCS will also require Taxpayer Identification Number for Landlord and Tenants to verify that the agreement is authentic.

Das adds the agreements need to be certified to deter fraud and to ensure proper execution.

TELS Board Chief Executive Bobby Maharaj has emphasized that in order to get the agreement stamped, certain other requirements need to be met.

Maharaj says this is aimed at ensuring that eligible Fijians benefit from the scheme while minimizing the risk of any potential students/landlords engaging in improper conduct or fraudulent activities to gain financial advantage.