Will book tariff work?
The Federal Government has
introduced 50 per cent tariff on printed materials to, in its words,
“encourage local production”. But in the face of the dwindling naira
value and lack of capacity for local production, stakeholders argue,
imported books will be priced beyond buyers’ reach. This, they say, may
spell doom for education, reports KOFOWOROLA BELO-OSAGIE.
The Federal Government’s introduction of 50 per cent tariff on printed materials jolted the industry.
Since the Ministry of Finance’s announcement, publishers, booksellers and others have been jittery.
The tarrif is broken down into 20 per cent duty and 30 per cent levy on books.
But, to stakeholders the move will be counter-productive, driving the
prices of books beyond buyer’s reach and stifling the local industry.
Last month, the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Mrs Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala, said discussions were on with the Nigeria Publishers
Association (NPA) and the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) to
resolve the issue. “Pending the resolution of the issues, several
options to address genuine concerns are being explored,” she noted, on
the social media.
While seeking ways to resolve the problems, stakeholders identified
many factors that would make the policy impracticable. They also
suggested what the Federal Government must do to make the local
publishing industry vibrant.
Likely scenario after introduction of tariff
If the 50 per cent tariff is introduced, Ogbeni Lanre Adesuyi,
Managing Director of Havilah Procurement and Library Services Ltd (a
leading company in books and publishing), said prices of books would
rise by about 50 per cent, which would further reduce the number of
books bought for libraries and read by Nigerians, especially at the
tertiary level, and encourage piracy and smuggling. He said the
devaluation of the naira further compounds the problem as the cost of
purchasing the books from source would automatically rise as well.
“It is going to affect the entire populace because the prices of
books will go up by 50 per cent. Secondly, don’t forget that naira has
already fallen against the dollar. That is another added cost. It will
affect prices of books by up to 30-40 per cent. It means people won’t
afford books. There will be piracy, which means authors will not reap
the benefit of intellectual property; and government would lose revenue
because pirates do not pay tax,” he said.
Chairman of Safari Books Ltd Chief Joop Bekhout foresees misfortune
for the Nigerian education sector if the policy should scale through.
He said: “It means that libraries will be without books because
nobody can afford them. It is even against UNESCO Convention which
Nigeria is a signatory. Under the agreement, you cannot task
educational materials. The ECOWAS agreement was just passed two days
ago. Theirs is zero. But Nigeria said no – that it is 50 per cent. It
takes effect from the 1st of January. So, instead of making progress,
we will go down. Everybody must appeal to the government to cancel it.
Whose idea it is, we don’t know. It is a very bad situation. It means
the people who implement it, they don’t care about our country; they
don’t care about education.”
Otunba Olayinka Lawal-Solarin, Chairman of Literamed Publications,
publishers of Lantern Books, noted that books may be scares because
local industry lack the the capacity to meet the demands of the Nigerian
populace for books.
“Yes, we should produce locally, but have we got the capacity? How
many books can printers in Nigeria print? The number of books we need
in Nigeria today is huge – for basic and secondary education, not to
talk of tertiary,” he said.
Why book imports are huge
Apart from lacking the local capacity to produce books needed in
Nigeria, Otunba Lawal-Solarin says some categories of books are not
published locally. He said most local publishers concentrate on
publishing books for the basic and secondary education, while tertiary
books are imported. He largely attributed the importation of most
tertiary books to the fact that there are few authors of tertiary books
in Nigeria. Since the authors are mostly foreign, he said Nigerian
publishers need to purchase rights before they can publish such books,
which may not be readily released.
“Do printers in Nigeria print tertiary books? Most of the tertiary
books in Nigeria come from India, Europe and America. They are mostly
authored by foreign writers. Unless publishers buy the rights, they
cannot print the books else it would amount to piracy. The authors must
also be willing to sell the rights to Nigerian publishers,” he said.
For Adesuyi, those in the manufacturing industry supporting the
tariff policy are doing so with the hope of winning huge government
contracts for publication of basic and secondary books without
considering that they lack the capacity for tertiary books.
“What they are targeting are the big government contracts because our
printers don’t have the capacity to produce locally in large quantity.
Nigerian printers don’t produce tertiary books. They (tertiary books)
are not usually produced in large quantity (even by foreign
publishers). Publishers even print them only on demand,” he said.
Bekhout added that publishing tertiary books in Nigeria is currently a
disincentive because of the low patronage. This may not be unconnected
to the cost. Some tertiary books sell N3,000- N5,000 or more, which
many tertiary students cannot afford.
“If you have an academic book that you only sell 500 copies in a
year, you can’t produce it locally; it doesn’t make any sense,” Bekhout
said.
Cheaper to produce abroad
With the country’s paper mills moribund and the paralyzing effect of
epileptic power supply, the local publishing industry cannot compete
with foreign book imports in terms of cost. Publishers say it is cheaper
to print good quality books abroad than locally.
“Printing is cheaper abroad,” said Lawal-Solarin, “which is not good
for us local publishers.” Without paper and power, it would always be
so. “We don’t have paper. All the paper mills are moribund. We should
go back to the basics and provide paper.”
Adesuyi said many publishers in Nigeria print abroad where power is available, labour is cheaper and quality is assured.
“It is cheaper to produce abroad because there is no power in
Nigeria. When there is no power, what does one fall back on, diesel.
How much does it cost? The publisher has to provide his own power.
Again, he has to provide skilled labour. Labour is expensive here
compared to Dubai, China and India where it is cheap,” he said.
As far as Behkout is concerned, the only local resource used in book
production in Nigeria is labour. With other components being imported,
he said it is unrealistic to end importation of books.
He said: “You know that in this country, we do not make any paper.
Every sheet of paper is imported. Local production of books is only
manpower. Even electricity is provided by generators. There is no
local component of bookmaking in this country. Raw material and every
other component of local production are imported.”
Book trade is international
Stifling book imports poses the danger of limiting the knowledge of
Nigerians, warns Bekhout, who noted that the book trade is in the
purview of international because knowledge is universal.
“We do local production. But there are limits to local production.
And knowledge is not local; knowledge is universal; it is
international. Why do we call it university, because should be
universal. If you are in London, my son is a professor in london, there
are over 46,000 students and staff from different nationalities in the
country. Education is a global idea; education is international,” he
said.
Way forward
While publishers say the 50 per cent tariff on book import is harsh,
they however said they were not against local production. They
recommended that the Federal Government should enhance capacity of local
players before introducing other measures.
Lawal-Solarin called for the resuscitation of paper mills in the
country. He also advocated a phase tariff plan on areas of strengths of
the local industry.
“We should do this gradually. The Federal Government should revive
the paper mills. Printers in Nigeria must get paper. Again, instead of
a blanket levy on all book imports, the government could decide that
the levy be on books in the basic education sector, where publishers are
thriving but leave out tertiary books,” he said
“A cursory inspection of the composition of NEGD brings into focus
the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON), National Television
Authority (NTA), Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) and the
Africa Independent Television (AIT, owned by a PDP chieftain).
The All
Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Organisation (APCPCO), has
urged President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party to
call to order, Niger Delta ex-militants, who have threatened to declare
war if Jonathan loses the February 14 presidential election.
