GPA announces date to increase students textbooks prices by 40%

The Ghana Publishers Association (GPA) citing exchange rate instability and difficult business environment says effective June 1, 2024, it will increase the prices of books for students in the country by 40 per cent.

President of the Association addressing the media at a press conference said the increase is due to the 27.5 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) levied on a list of materials imported into the country to “support education, culture and lifestyles.”

Acknowledging the importance of the Value Added Tax (VAT) as a support to the printing of books locally, the GPA leader, Mr Asare Konadu Yamoah said it had not reduced importation and the cost of books in the country. 

Mr Yamoah said that local publishers still needed to import some books that could not be printed in the country; therefore, the tax on local and foreign publications was unfavourable. 

“Most of the books for technical and vocational education, books for tertiary education and books to support the development of reading culture are mostly imported and cannot be printed locally as they are not published in the country. 

Therefore, categorising all of them and those that are indigenously published and printed overseas and imposing a blanket VAT to the levels currently being charged cannot be justified,” the Ghana Publishers Association president said.

The Publishers Association amid the challenges confronting their business has urged the central government to reconsider the tax policy on books to ease the burden on parents and educational service providers. 

Mr Yamoah noted that local book printing firms needed more incentives to remain competitive instead of the government imposing “huge taxes” on books printed overseas. 

“Taxes on printing inputs which are all imported have to be removed. Credit for the purchase of printing inputs should be favourable.  

Even though the cost of importation has gone up, importers of printed books are likely to still import as the cost of importation will still be cheaper than the local printing,” Mr Asare Konadu stated as quoted by Ghana News Agency.

The publishers said the Association was willing to dialogue with the relevant government agencies on the matter, but that until such a conversation was initiated, book prices would have to be raised.