Dear Colleagues,
Our senior well-wisher Sathyanarayana has said rightly that knowledge has no boundary. The FM should not have considered imported books under tax range. We librarians are at receiving end and may have limited voice against policy makers/Govt. but we should not escape from the scene that it is not our problem. It is our problem and our professionals and LIS forums/associations should take steps raise collective voice. Like many NGOs do, Let our associations/forums seek collective opinion through survey and submit it to Govt for consideration and show our concern.
At the same time our business partners such as publishers, distributors, vendors and their Associations should raise their voice against taxing on imported books.
Supporting national publishers and authors is a welcoming act. But it should ensure that similar quality products are in market and authors also contribute to high quality books. Let Govt takes step to encourage authors to write high quality books and the market is blessed with quality products, teachers also may prefer national books. Let Govt. create self-sufficient environment.
Govt of India is creating several institutions/Universities of Eminence in the country. Let these institutions enrich the country with publications of eminence and matching international standards.
When our mother land is able to publish world class books and journals, our academicians dependency on international research papers and books get reduced significantly and we may see our publications sparkling in international markets. Let govt. extend all support and encouragement to make country embedded with very high quality books and journals. International publishers who are proud of quality publications and charging us heavily should feel the heat of competition from India. Let us wish India stands very of high with its quality intellectual output and give tough competitions against heavy charging publishers and create a fear of replacement.
With Regards,
Manjunatha
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Dr. Manjunatha K
Chief Librarian
T.A. Pai Management Institute
Manipal – 576 104, Karnataka, India
Ph: 0820 – 2701105/ Mob: +917349255658/9972425417
Email: manjunath@tapmi.edu.in; manjunathak@gmail.com
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-----Original Message-----
From: LIS-Forum [mailto:lis-forum-bounces@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in] On Behalf Of Mysore Jagadish
Sent: Sunday, July 7, 2019 7:57 PM
To: Sathyanarayana NV
Cc: lisforum
Subject: Re: [LIS-Forum] Budget 2019, Books & Libraries
Very right. Knowledge has no boundaries.
Jagadish
On Sun, Jul 7, 2019, 17:36 Sathyanarayana NV
The union budget for 2019-20 presented by our fist lady Finance Minister of India has something literally striking at book lovers and libraries. This is perhaps the first budget since 1947 that has taxed printed books by levying 5% import duty. The reason given is: this step would promote local publishing industry. Should a democratic society discriminate knowledge by its origin?
Such a step was attempted in Karnataka when S M Krishna was the Chief Minister. The tax was rolled back quickly as the authors’ community, publishers and the Karnataka State Library Association (KALA) strongly protested then.
If there is one thing in the world that knows no boundary, it is knowledge. Knowledge by nature is universal. Books are the most reverential symbol and embodiment of knowledge. Taxing books and knowledge on the grounds of their origin is a highly retrograde steps. There are already protests in the media seeking to roll-back this tax. It is time the libraries and publishing industry come out and appeal to the Government through their respective professional groups and associations.
|N. V. Sathyanarayana| |Chairman & Managing Director|Informatics India Ltd.|Bangalore 560004|INDIA| |www.informaticsglobal.com|
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