The Ghana Association of Publishers (GPA), has announced a 40 percent upward adjustment in prices of books beginning June this year.
The decision according to the group is as a result of the Value Added Tax (VAT) imposed by government on imported books.
Speaking during a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, President of GPA, Asare Konadu Yamoah lamented that government’s policy is killing their businesses.
He however, urged government to immediately remove the taxes imposed by government and rather offer incentives to alleviate their plight.
“The supposed policy intervention in support of local printing has not helped unless the intention was to raise revenue. The issue that faces us as an industry is not about imposing huge taxes on overseas printing as a measure to discourage import but government providing huge incentives to enable our local printing firms that are heavily dependent on imported materials to be competitive.
“Taxes on printing inputs which are all imported have not been removed and has to be removed. For instance, paper and other printing inputs have been affected by the foreign exchange instability and taxes. Credit for the purchase of printing inputs which are all imported should be favorable. The current situation with our banks cannot help domestic printing of books. Even though the cost of importation has gone up astronomically, once importers of printed books are able to raise funds, they are likely to still import from outside as the cost of importation will still be cheaper than the local printing” he stressed.
He therefore called for a stakeholder engagement to find better ways of dealing with the issue.
“We are ready to meet with government agencies, particularly the Ministry of Finance and Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) on this issue and propose for consideration, innovative and progressive measures that will improve the business environment in the industry and potentially make Ghana the printing hub of West Africa.
“Until such conversation is initiated, we have no option but to increase prices of books. Starting from June, prices will go up between 30 to 40 percent. This decision was not easy to make considering the difficult challenges businesses and the citizens are faced with. We therefore seek the understanding of Ghanaians as we have to protect our businesses from collapse,” he added.
