The Punjab Regulation of Fee of Un-aided Educational Institutions (Amendment) Bill, 2026, will be introduced in the monsoon session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha scheduled from August 3.The AAP government claims that the Bill will give permanent legal backing to the ordinance already in force since July 13, ensuring strict regulation of private school fees and protecting students and parents from arbitrary and exorbitant fee hikes.More than 32 lakh students studying in over 7,800 private schools across Punjab stand to benefit from what is being called one of the country’s most stringent fee regulation frameworks.The government has introduced hard caps on annual fee hikes, made refunds mandatory for excess collections, and empowered authorities to conduct forensic audits of school accounts. Private schools can no longer increase fees by more than five percent a year on their own. Any hike beyond this requires written approval from the District Regulatory Body, granted only after scrutiny of the school’s financial records.“If a school’s cumulative fee hike over the last three years exceeds 15%, the excess amount has to be refunded to students and parents. All compulsory charges are clubbed together while calculating the fee cap, so schools cannot bypass the limit by splitting fees under different heads,” Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains said.To ensure strict implementation, a regulatory body headed by the Deputy Commissioner has been constituted in each district. “Every private school is required to upload fee records for the last four years on the Education Department’s portal within the prescribed timeline,” he said.The legislation prescribes stringent penalties. The first violation will attract a fine of Rs 50,000, while the second violation will invite a penalty of Rs 1 lakh. Repeated violations may result in cancellation of the school’s recognition, besides legal action.