By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Sept 19: Academicians associated with different organisations have joined their hands against the government decision to impose 10 per cent tax in the books that are printed and imported from abroad. They have contended that the decision has puts a barrier on knowledge.
Speaking at an interaction programme organised by Books Sellers and Distributors Association of Nepal, the stakeholders defined the government decision to impose tax on imported textbooks as a tax on knowledge.
They demanded that the decision of imposing tax on books should be scrapped to protect readers’ rights to read book without any disturbance.
The book sellers and distributors said that no book entered the nation from abroad since the start of new fiscal year. Researchers and PhD students and other students who are in need of international books have been affected by the government’s decision, they stated.
Shanta Kumar Gautam, vice-chairperson of the association, said the government decided to impose 10 per cent tax of MRP price printed in the books. Earlier, they were bringing books in discount and selling them also in discount.
After the introduction of the new tax system, they are unable to give discount to readers, Gautam added.
Jyoti Baniya, chairperson of the Consumer Rights' Association, said the government wanted to abuse the reading rights of people by imposing tax on books.
It is against the people’s fundamental rights of education mentioned in the Constitution, Baniya added. He also blamed that it was a policy level corruption.
Prof. Dr. Ramesh Bhattarai said the taxation over books would decrease the book reading trends of youths.
All participants describe the provision as tax on knowledge and they demanded to remove the provision.