The Goods and Services Tax Council decided to include certain daily-use items in the GST collection during its 47th meeting in late June. Following this, a post has gone viral on social media claiming that the Centre has imposed taxes on all school books.
In 2020, a similar claim went viral on social media. At the time, the Press Information Bureau had clarified that no taxes had been levied on school books.
It is thus clear that books are exempt from tax. However, exercise books, graphs, etc. are taxed. Apart from this, taxes are levied on printing, binding, paper pulp, and even writers’ royalties. Thus, the tax will have an impact on the book industry. Reports about the same can be seen here However, there is no direct GST levied on school textbooks. So, it is clear that the posts being circulated are misleading.
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