Tax on local books big disincentive - Dr Kwasi Opoku Amankwa
The Head of the Department of Publishing Studies at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Dr Kwasi Opoku Amankwa, has stated that the imposition of tax on locally published books is a big disincentive for publishing and printing firms in the country.
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The situation, he said, was adversely affecting the viability of the two industries in the country, adding that due to the situation, the print industry was burdened with taxes which had affected the local firms.
Dr Opoku Amankwa said this at a dialogue meeting on the topic,“The challenges of the publishing industry and the way forward” at the Trade Fair Site, Accra.
Dialogue
The dialogue, which was between the Graphic Communications Group Ltd and the Ghana Book Publishers Association (GBPA), was to identify problems confronting the publishing industry and to find ways of addressing them.
Dr Amankwa, however, said because of the imposition of tariffs, some local printing firms had been forced to print books outside the country and that was detrimental to the development of the print industry in the country.
He said a research conducted by the printers association, in collaboration with the BUSAG Fund, revealed that 2,409 workers had been made redundant in the past six years and that was affecting the economic development of the country.
Dr Amankwa pointed out the governments’s failure to adhere to the policy of printing 60 per cent of its textbooks locally, stressing that it was killing the industry and slowing development.
Enact law
The President of GBPA, Dr Samuel Osafo Acquaah, appealed to the government to support the local publishing industry by enacting a national book policy backed by law.
He contended that even though there was a book policy in the country, its application was subjected to the whims and caprices of the Ministry of Education.
“We have a book policy where one cannot determine its structures. Each year when there is a book tender, the policy also has a new interpretation and it cannot happen this way,’’ he said.
He admitted that though the government had made an effort to have a publishing studies department at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), majority of the products of the department had found themselves in other sectors.
Dr Acquaah said it was the desire of the association to see to it that products of the department would have the mindset that they were preparing to work in the book industry.
Professional body
He hinted of the intention of the association to be transformed into a professional body, “but we are not a professional body, we are an association and we can’t move to higher heights when we don’t have a professional recognition.
“Currently, anybody can print any book and then just sell it, but when we become a professional body, we will be able to print books which will be in conformity with the laws of the country’’.
Taxes
The President of the Ghana Printers and Paper Convertors Association, Mr James Appiah Berko, appealed to the government to look at the taxes imposed on the local printing industry as compared to the tax holiday for finished textbooks imported into the local market.
“The continuous enjoyment of free entry of books produced outside into our market is depriving the local industry of jobs. It is depriving the industry of cash. It is depriving the industry of incentives to invest,” he said.