Call to exempt e-books from GST
PETALING JAYA: The Malaysia Booksellers Association is
calling on the government to exempt e-books from the
soon-to-be implemented Goods and Services Tax (GST) to
allow growth in the local industry.
MBA president
Keith Thong said there are only three e-book companies
in the country accounting for only 1% of revenue in the
book-selling industry but they make up a substantial
percentage globally, especially in education.
"In the global education sector, reading materials were
initially 30% digital and 70% physical, but now it is
70% digital and 30% physical, and people buy in bulk to
put it in their research database.
"If you look
at research in universities, most university students do
their research online and it is very rare for them to
research physically in libraries," Thong told the Sun
today.
However, the opportunity would be wasted if GST is
applied on e-books as foreign e-book companies are
exempted, giving them a tax advantage over the budding
local industry and stagnating growth as a result. |
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"The e-book industry is still insignificant, but let it
prosper and don't kill it in its infancy. Other
countries like Thailand, Singapore and the US can sell
to Malaysians without being taxed," Thong said.
Furthermore, taxing e-books would discourage a growing
digital readership in Malaysia, and that would
contribute negatively to the government's goal of
cultivating a reading habit.
Thong has appealed
to Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Chua Tee Yong to exempt
e-books from GST and said the Library Association of
Malaysia will have a meeting with fellow librarians
tomorrow at the National Library to discuss the matter.
Thong is also trying to confirm with authorities if
research and development journals from universities will
be exempted.
The government announced that all
reading materials will be exempted from GST except for
magazines, which are considered as consumer goods.
Source:
The Sun Daily
, dated
29/03/2015 |
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