Govt urged to abolish VAT on books
Govt urged to abolish VAT on books
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Publishers Association has
repeated its call for the government to exempt books from the
value added tax (VAT).
Rozali Usman, the chairman of the association, said during the
opening ceremony of a book exhibition at the Istora Senayan
Sports Hall yesterday that a recent conference of the association
had made the appeal to the government in order to lower the price
of books. Prices are said to be too expensive for average
Indonesians.
The 10-day exhibition, which is sponsored by the association,
features 150 publishers. The government of Malaysia is also
taking part.
Usman said that the government subsidizes only school texts
and religious books. All other books are subject to the value
added tax.
Although school and religious books comprise 95 percent of
book production in Indonesia, Usman argues that the five percent
tax is still a great burden.
If the government abolishes the tax on books, their price will
decrease about 10 percent, he said.
Meanwhile, Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman
Djojonegoro said when opening the exhibition that Indonesians'
inclination to read is still very low.
"They should be pushed to read more," he said.
However, he said, for those few who make reading a hobby, the
high price will pose no problem.
If a family has a small library at home and buys a book every
month, book production will surely increase, Wardiman said.
According to the minister, last year 5,000 titles were
published in Indonesia. Wardiman said the number is far from
satisfactory.
"About 400 million of music cassettes were sold here last year
compared to only 30 million books," he said.
Hasrom bin Haron, president of the Malaysia Book Publishers
Association, told The Jakarta Post that the association
publishes about 4,000 new titles every year.
He said that reading in Malaysia is improving although the
challenge of electronic media is very strong.
Arianto, chairman of the exhibition's organizing committee,
said the Publishers' Association has published a monthly catalog
for readers. It contains information and book reviews, he said.
Arianto also said the quality of the catalog will be improved
and it will include a list of monthly best-sellers. The list will
be supplied by Gramedia and Gunung Agung, two book store chains
in Indonesia.
The exhibition also features a 11-year-old author, named A.
Faris Ardi, who has published two works called Matahari Pun
Bersinar Untukku (The Sun Shines for Me) and Kembali ke Sekolah
(Back to School). (05)