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Saturday, March 28, 2015

No GST on books and newspapers but...

But tax applies on magazines, digital books and magazines, stationery and notebooks

Printed books and newspapers, and digital editions of newspapers are exempted from the Goods and Services Tax to be imposed from Wednesday, deputy finance minister Chua Tee Yong said today.
He said books included fiction and non-fiction titles, and reference and religious work, NST Online reported.

The Finance Ministry had decided that only electronic books, printed and digital magazines, stationery, notepads and exercise books would be subjected to GST.

Chua said there had been confusion among publishers and booksellers about the GST zero-rating on reading materials. “About 20,000 books a year are produced by publishers and to choose which one to be exempted is a big task,” he said.

“School books such as colouring books for kindergarten or cooking books will not be subjected to GST,” he told reporters here, said after a powerboat race at Danga Bay today.

Chua’s announcement comes after the Malaysian Book Industry Council asked the government to reconsider imposing GST on reading materials. The Star reported that the ministry decided on Wednesday to zero-rate all types of reading matter, excluding magazines in order to cultivate the reading habit among the people, according to a statement.

Previously, only dictionaries, encyclopedias, reference works and religious books had been zero-rated.

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