Read - at zero rate

PETALING JAYA: The Government has classified all books as zero-rated under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in a move to encourage the reading habit, much to the delight of booksellers, publishers and avid readers.

Major players in the book industry said the decision would help boost the country’s reading culture.

“We’re tremendously happy,” said Malaysian Booksellers Association president Keith Thong.

Initially, the GST (Zero-Rated Supply) Order 2014 stated that dictionaries, encyclopaedias, reference works and religious books would be zero-rated, while the standard 6% GST would be imposed on all other types, including fiction.

This led to the Malaysian Book Industry Council presenting a memo­­randum to the Finance Ministry, arguing that the GST system was confusing for booksellers and burdensome to consumers.

The ministry decided on Wed­nesday that the zero-rated GST status be extended to all types of reading materials. Magazines, however, would be standard rated at 6%. Newspapers are already zero-rated.

“The Government hopes that after this announcement, all GST zero-rated reading materials will not see any price increases and that this can cultivate the reading habit among the people,” a statement from the ministry read.

Thong said the ministry’s decision came as a big relief.

“The Government has listened to the industry and the people. It has done the right thing.”

Malaysian Book Publishers Association secretary Arief Hakim Sani Rahmat was equally pleased.

“This is very good news,” he said.

“I am a bit sad, though, that e-books are not included. In my opinion, books in any format are still books,” he said.

“I hope e-books will be given the same treatment and be zero-rated.”

Arief, who is managing director of PTS Publications & Distributors Sdn Bhd, said his company would make the necessary changes to its systems when the announcement is gazetted.

Kon Onn Sein, a father of two school-going girls who are avid readers of story books, said if GST were imposed on books, it would have hampered and discouraged learning.

“It would have gone against the Vision 2020 objective of creating a more knowledgeable society,” he said.

He said his daughters, aged 10 and 14, also bought many revision books.

Cecilia Ng, 46, a mother of two primary school goers, welcomed the move to zero rate books for GST.

“I spend about RM500 a month on books for my daughters. From the bookstore to our home, the girls would have read at least two of the Geronimo Stilton books or Dork Diary.

“Buying books is a permanent feature in my monthly budget and it would save me between RM30 and RM40 a month if GST is not imposed, and that is quite a lot,” she added.