Bookstore owners in Thimphu have put up an appeal letter to the Prime Minister, Tshering Tobgay to allow them to continue importing books from India without the 20 percent custom duty.
Apart from the 5 percent sales tax, the bookstore owners are levied 20 percent custom duty on books which are not printed in India.
The appeal letter, signed by 11 bookstore owners in Thimphu, say the companies that publish the books are international companies that are not based in any one country. It says the distributers, which the bookstore owners purchase from, are the Indian branches of Penguin, Random House India, and HarperCollins India. They say it is clear that their books are imported from India not from third party.
DSB Bookstore Proprietor, B.P Bhattarai said if the government fails to consider their plea, they will stop importing the books by foreign authors, excluding Indian Authors. “This will undermine the quality of books which is contradictory to the country’s Reading Year initiative.”
The owners say the Department of Revenue and Customs started implementing the rule strictly only from April this year even though the rule was put in place in 2007.
“If the rule always existed, as the Department of Revenue and Customs say, why is it only being implemented now?” Junction Bookstore’s Owner, Kunzang Choki Mui said.
The customs’ officials did not want to comment on the delay in the implementation of the rule.
However, a response letter a bookstore owner received, says the customs department will not be able to consider their request to waive off the 20 percent custom duty.
The bookstore owners are yet to hear from the Prime Minister.
