More
than 5000 Consignments for Printed Books Stuck at Foreign Post Office Bombay as
Modi Govt Bans Imports through Postal Channel in
Budget 2019
· Books must be imported by Air in regular Consignments with
High Freight Cost
· 5.5% Customs Duty must be Paid through Bill of Entry
Filing at Port with Importer Exporter Code
· Remittance for Invoice through regular Banking Channel and
RBI Exchange Control Oversight
-ABS News
Service
New Delhi, 22 August, 2019. The
Narendra Modi government’s imposition of 5% customs duty on
imported books along with a ban on personal imports through postal channel
under heading 9804 of Customs Tariff has sent over 5000 consignments of
books in Bombay Foreign Post Office to be dustbin. WIPO gifts of IPR books to
World Trade Centre are also stuck at the Foreign Post Office. They must now get
an IE Code from DGFT and pay 5.5% Customs Duty to rescue the free
gift.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the increase in duty from zero to 5%
during the Union Budget speech on July 5 as part of the “make in India” goal to
encourage domestic publishing and the print industry. It is a moot point
whether low volume books can ever be “indigenised”.
Postal channel was
created through the good office of Universal Postal Union (UPU) under
UN. It was a low cost alternative to import and export of books. With the
closure of the heading 9804 covering postal imports, books
can be exported only by the more expensive commercial freight air channel.
India is signatory to UPU but is now going against the body.
India is also a signatory to the
UNESCO Florence declaration of 17 June 1950 “Agreement on the Importation of
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Materials”. Under this, the contracting
States undertake not to apply customs duties or other charges on, or in
connection with, the importation of books, publications and documents.
Further, indirect protection to domestic
products as a taxation of imports for revenue purposes is not
allowed under the UNESCO protocol. India is perhaps the first country in
the world to put a tax on imported books.
Even exports through postal channel is not allowed. This is a blow to Indian publishing since postal
channel is an efficient channel available to exporters and
also users at the other end who get the books through post offices
located in far corners of the globe.