Dear Moderator, You are requested to post the following message from the ILA president Prof.(Mrs.) ASHU SHOKKEN and Prof.Muttayya Koganuramath, regarding 'Libraries and Tax problems'. Thank you,with regards, *Puttaraj.* ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Prof.Muttayya Koganuramath <muttayya53@gmail.com> Date: Fri, Jul 25, 2014 at 3:40 PM Subject: Fwd: LIBRARIES & THE TAX PROBLEMS: A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT, INDIAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION To: Puttaraj Choukimath <choukimath@gmail.com>, Kotresh <kbagadi@gmail.com> Please forward this mail to various LIS forums and TISS groups. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Prof.Muttayya Koganuramath <muttayya53@gmail.com> Date: Fri, Jul 25, 2014 at 3:35 PM Subject: LIBRARIES & THE TAX PROBLEMS: A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT, INDIAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION To: lis-forum@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in Dear Librarians The new Government is laying special emphasis on libraries in education by proclaiming its intent of establishing national e-Library in line with its election manifesto. Indian Library Association (ILA) is participating in the innovative and best practices of the Government's policy, especially in the filed of Library and Information services. ILA aims at enriching the knowledge society of the country towards an inclusive education and analyzing the role of the Government in the development and implementation of national education and library policies. It is heartening to know that our new Hon'ble Prime Minister is a great friend of e-libraries. During his visit to Bhutan he proudly announced that India would extend its support and expertise in setting up an e-Library for Bhutan with an aid funding of Rs.2 crore. But, the first budget of the new Government has a few unpleasant surprises for the Libraries, which will prove to be counter-productive in the collection development for e-libraries. There are two serious tax burdens, which will adversely affect the development of e-libraries in the country. These are: 1. It is believed that libraries will have to deduct tax at source (TDS) when they make payment for purchase of e-books/e-journals as they may be considered as software/electronic data. This has come into effect since July 2012. Publishers, particularly the foreign ones, are resisting the deduction, as it will be both financial and operational nuisance for them. Also there is no clarity on whether the law considers e-books/e-journals as equivalent to software. The Library profession needs to insist on the Government for policy clarification on this matter and request for exemption of e-resources of educational nature from TDS deduction. 2. While subscription to online e-resources were exempted from service tax by the previous Government through a general exemption of educational services to schools and colleges under the category "Auxiliary Educational Services" in the negative list, the current Government has withdrawn this exemption. This means, all purchases/subscriptions of e-books/e-journals will come under the additional burden of service tax, which will be about 12.5%. ILA is submitting a petition to Shri Arun Jaitley, Hon'ble Finance Minister, drawing his kind attention to the need for exempting e-books/e-journals from the above tax burdens and further requesting him to issue a policy clarification that e-content should not be treated as software under the law and should be freed from all tax burdens like the printed books and journals have been accorded tax-free status. A copy of the petition is posted on this site as a letter of appeal from the profession (through ILA) to the Finance Minister. ( www.ipetitions.com/petition/indian-library-association) Please visit this site and sign this petition. ILA President is seeking an appointment with the Finance Minister and the HRD Minister to submit this petition next week. We have to move fast well before the budget is passed in the parliament. Please act fast and join ILA in this cause by signing the petition at www.ipetitions.com/petition/indian-library-association. *Prof.(Mrs.) Ashu Shokeen* *President, Indian Library Association * *Dept. of Library & Information Science* *Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra* Email : shokeen_ashu@rediffmail.com *AND * *Prof. Muttayya Koganuramath* *(Former President, ILA)* *Centre for Library & Information Science,* *Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar* Email: muttayya53@gmail.com -- Prof. Muttayya Koganuramath Professor Centre for Library and Information Science, Central University of Gujarat Sector-30, Gandhinagar - 382030 Gujarat State Mobile: 09033070481 Email: muttayya53@gmail.com koganuramath@rediffimail.com <koganuramath@rediffimail.com> -- Prof. Muttayya Koganuramath Professor Centre for Library and Information Science, Central University of Gujarat Sector-30, Gandhinagar - 382030 Gujarat State Mobile: 09033070481 Email: muttayya53@gmail.com koganuramath@rediffimail.com <koganuramath@rediffimail.com> -- Mr.Puttaraj, A. C. Asst. Librarian (SS) Periodicals Section, SDTM Library, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, P.B. No.8313, Deonar, MUMBAI - 400 088 (Maharashtra) INDIA T: +91-22-2552 5285 (O); Fax: +91-22-2552 5050 E: choukimath@tiss.edu; choukimath@gmail.com W: http://library.tiss.edu/ B: http://socialsciencesinfoblog.blogspot.com -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.