A concession should be a policy, not a favour at the counter

The trustees of a 1,500-student CBSE school in Bhopal sit down with the year-end numbers and ask a simple question: why did the school collect ₹14 lakh less than it billed, when defaulters explain only half of the gap? The answer takes the accountant three days. Two families received the sibling concession for cousins who share a surname. A teacher who resigned in October still has two children on a 50% staff-ward concession. A hardship concession approved during the pandemic was never reviewed. An early-payment discount went to a parent who paid three weeks late because someone at the counter "had promised". And a full concession for a trustee's nephew exists only in the accountant's memory. None of this was fraud. All of it was decisions nobody wrote down.

What a school fee concession policy is for

A fee concession is a legitimate tool. It keeps siblings together in one school, retains good staff, rewards talent and carries a family through a bad year. The trouble is never the concession itself; it is the informal one, agreed on a phone call, applied at the counter and forgotten by the next session.

A written policy answers seven questions before anyone asks them: who qualifies, how much they get, on which fee heads, for how long, what proof is needed, who approves, and what ends the concession. It also protects the school. In a January 2024 case involving a Ghaziabad school's sibling scheme, the Allahabad High Court held that such relief "is a benefit" that is "subject to certain riders and cannot be claimed as a matter of right". Riders only protect a school that has written them down.

The concessions Indian schools actually offer

There is no national standard, and schools' published fee pages for 2025-26 and 2026-27 show a wide spread. These are the figures schools state in their own policies, which make a better benchmark than anyone's guess:

The government benchmark: what Kendriya Vidyalayas exempt

Kendriya Vidyalayas are a useful reference because their rules are public and national. The KVS fee schedule lists tuition fee exemptions for all girls from Class I to XII, SC/ST students and wards of KVS employees; exemption from tuition and the Vidyalaya Vikas Nidhi for children from BPL families (up to two) and students with disabilities; and exemption from tuition, the Vikas Nidhi and the computer fund for a single girl child in Classes VI to XII.

One note in the same schedule is worth copying in spirit. It says exemptions will not be allowed to the children of government employees, KVS employees included, because they already get reimbursement from their departments. A private school's version is simple: do not stack a staff-ward concession on top of an education allowance the school, or another employer, already pays.

RTE seats are not a concession

Free seats under Section 12(1)(c) of the Right to Education Act are an obligation, not a discount: private unaided schools must admit children from weaker and disadvantaged groups in at least 25% of the entry-class strength. Under Section 12(2) the state reimburses either its own per-child expenditure or the fee actually charged, whichever is less, and a school that received land or facilities free or at a concessional rate gets no reimbursement to the extent of that obligation.

Keep RTE students out of your concession register and in a claims register of their own, because that money is not foregone; the state owes it to you. Our guides on tracking RTE reimbursement and the 25% EWS quota cover the claim cycle.

Two tax traps: staff wards and trust-run schools

Staff wards. Free or concessional education for an employee's child, in a school the employer runs, is a salary perquisite. Under the Income-tax Rules, 2026, in force from 1 April 2026, it is valued at the cost of education in a similar school in or near the locality, less anything recovered from the employee, and it counts only where that value exceeds ₹3,000 a month per child, up from ₹1,000 under the old rules. Such amenities are generally taxable only for employees above a prescribed salary level, which was raised to ₹4 lakh a year in August 2025, so many teachers fall outside the rule. Payroll should still check each case, and your CA should confirm the current threshold under the 2026 Rules.

Trust- and society-run schools. Concessions to founders, trustees, large donors and their relatives are a different problem. Under the 1961 Act, the value of educational services given to such persons free or at a concessional rate was deemed income of the trust, although Section 13(6) stopped that alone from costing the trust its whole exemption. The Income-tax Act, 2025 carries the idea forward: income applied for the benefit of a "related person", a group that includes founders, trustees, their relatives and substantial contributors, is taxed as specified income. Whatever the section number, the practical rule is the same: approve such concessions at board level, record them by name, and show them to your auditor.

A fee concession policy you can adopt: twelve clauses

Copy these into a one-page policy, fill in your numbers, and have the managing committee approve it before admissions open:

1. Nature. Concessions are discretionary, granted for one session at a time, and are not a right.
2. Categories and amounts. A table of each category (sibling, staff ward, merit, hardship, defence, alumni, early payment) with its percentage or rupee amount.
3. Fee heads. Tuition only unless stated; transport, examination, board and activity fees excluded.
4. Which child. For siblings, state whether the elder or younger child receives it, and what happens when one leaves.
5. Proof. What each category must submit, from birth certificates showing the same parents for siblings to an appointment letter for staff and documents for hardship.
6. One concession per child. Or a stated maximum total percentage when two categories apply.
7. Validity. One session; families re-apply before the new session starts.
8. When it ends. A staff member leaving, a sibling leaving, dues unpaid beyond a stated period, or a repeated class, as your policy decides.
9. Application window. Dates, a form, and a written decision with reasons.
10. Approval limits. For example, the principal up to 25% and the managing committee above that, and never the same person who entered the request.
11. Related persons. Any concession to a trustee, founder, donor or their relatives approved by the board and disclosed to the auditor.
12. Review. A monthly register of concessions by category and class, and an annual review of the whole policy with the auditor.

Six ways concessions quietly leak revenue

Most leakage is not dishonesty. It is the gap between what the policy says and what the ledger actually does, and it grows every session nobody looks:

What to check in your school software

Entab, Fedena, Teachmint, MyClassboard, Vidyalaya, Edunext, Campus 365 and most other school ERPs let you give a discount. What a principal needs to see is control. Can each concession type be limited to specific fee heads and dates? Can a type require approval, or approval above an amount? Can a front-desk user collect fees without being able to give a discount? Does every concession show who granted it and when? And can the principal see, on one screen, how much fee the school has given up this session by category?

Test these on a live account with three real cases: a sibling, a staff ward and a hardship request. For the fee structure these concessions sit on, see our school fee management software guide.

Where Inkwelly fits

Inkwelly lets a school set up each concession type once, whether sibling, staff ward, merit, need-based, single parent, defence, alumni or early payment, as a percentage or a fixed amount, on all fee heads, on tuition only or on the heads you choose, with the dates it is valid for. A type can require approval, or approval above an amount you set, and an unapproved concession never reaches a parent's bill.

Every concession, scholarship and waiver records who created or changed it and when, and each invoice line shows which concession was applied. The default front-desk clerk role can collect fees and issue receipts but cannot grant concessions. Scholarships can carry an annual budget and a seat limit. RTE students are billed and waived in full, kept out of late fees, and their monthly reimbursement claim is drafted from those records. A concessions view shows how much fee the school has foregone this session, by category, with pending approvals. Plans run from ₹49 to ₹199 per student per year; see the Student Fee module.

“A concession is a decision about the school's own revenue. If nobody can say who made it, the school didn't.”

Review every concession before the next session opens

Do one exercise before admissions: list every concession currently running, with the child, the category, the amount, the fee heads, who approved it and when it ends. Most schools find a handful that should have ended, a few that were never approved, and at least one nobody can explain.

Adopt the twelve clauses, re-approve what still qualifies, and let the rest lapse at the end of the session. The generosity stays. The leakage does not.

See concession approvals and the fee-foregone view on real data

Bring your current concession list. We will set up sibling, staff-ward and hardship concessions with approval limits, apply them to a real fee structure, and show what the principal sees at month end, in 30 minutes.