Re: [LIS-Forum] Budget 2019, Books & Libraries

Dear friends, First of all I express my sincere thanks to Mr Sathya who raised an important issue concerning 5% import duty on books in the recent budget. I really wonder why such issues are not taken up first by our library professionals who occupy high positions; display a long list of their qualifications/affiliations; head many library associations/societies; who received many awards for their service to the profession? It is always Mr Sathya who on many occasions wrote & fought with the IT department and concerned Ministries and made things easy for our libraries. For example, the removal of custom duty on CDROM databases in the 1990s; the abolition of GOC rates; abolition of exclusive agents for supply of library materials including e-resources; the issue of TDS on payments to foreign e-journal subscriptions; service tax on subscriptions to library materials; retrospective tax on Vodafone company; annulling the proposal of forming a Federation of Library Associations, etc. In fact, Books and Journals in print medium have always been tax free whether they are published in India or abroad. Import of CD-ROMs and e-books/journals/databases containing educational and research material are always exempt from customs duty and other taxes. I am of the opinion that all of us (including library associations) should lend a helping hand to Mr Sathya to take up the matter with the Ministry of Finance to abolish the 5 % import duty on foreign books. Dr. M. Koteswara Rao former Librarian University of Hyderabad ________________________________ From: LIS-Forum on behalf of Ajay Kum Sharma Sent: Monday, July 8, 2019 10:06 AM To: Mysore Jagadish Cc: lisforum; Sathyanarayana NV Subject: Re: [LIS-Forum] Budget 2019, Books & Libraries Library professionals under the Library Associations should protest in big way so that they revert back this decision. On Sun, 7 Jul 2019 at 23:18, Mysore Jagadish wrote:

Very right. Knowledge has no boundaries. Jagadish

On Sun, Jul 7, 2019, 17:36 Sathyanarayana NV

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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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