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Maloniai kviečiama paskaityti tarptautinės Frankfurto knygų mugės organizatorių straipsnį apie pakitusią pridetinės vertės mokesčio knygoms situaciją Lietuvoje ir Latvijoje: „Lithuania: massive increase in VAT on books“ (anglų kalba).

Lithuania: massive increase in VAT on books

Vilnius celebrated the tenth anniversary of the successful Baltic Book Fair (12 to 15 February) this year, but the dominant topic at the fair was the planned increase in VAT to 19 per cent.

An increase planned for June in VAT on books to 19 per cent (currently at 9 per cent) is causing agitation in the Lithuanian book business. "Nobody would have thought that the first double-figure anniversary of the book fair in Vilnius would fall at a time that is so unfavourable for books and publishing. If the state continues to pay so little attention to literature, books will become expensive, and many a publishing company may not survive until the next book fair", reported the "Lietuvos žinios" newspaper.

In neighbouring Latvia, a VAT of 21 per cent has already been charged on books since January. The Latvian government cited the public deficit as its reason for this tax level. Out of all countries in the EU, Latvia has been most affected by the financial crisis. In January, Latvian book sales declined by 30 per cent as compared to 2008. It is estimated that there will be altogether 35 per cent fewer titles published in 2009 than in the previous year, says Renate Punka of Janis Roze Publishers. The first redundancies have already happened in big publishing companies like Zvaigzne ABC. The Lithuanian publishing sector now fears that the planned increase in VAT will have a similar effect in its own country.

International protests

The international publishers associations have voiced their protest in a letter to Lithuania's Prime Minister, Andrius Kubilius, and the Lithuanian Minister of Culture, Remigijus Vilkaitis. Federico Motta, president of the Federation of European Publishers (FEP) states that Europe is in crisis. "At such a moment of crisis faced by our continent, it is important that the European Union and its Member States remember that a knowledge-based society needs a healthy publishing society to provide citizens with well-informed and high-quality content. This clearly cannot be achieved by raising taxes on books."

The Secretary General of the International Publishers Association (IPA), Jens Bammel, wrote: "We urge your Government to revoke the relevant legislative changes, so as to safeguard and possibly further strengthen the Lithuanian publishing industry and book culture which has so impressively grown since your country regained independence."

The 55,600 visitors to the Baltic Book Fair were all the more eager to take the opportunity of buying books at lower prices offered by the publishers. Literature represented at the book fair was primarily from Lithuania with 166 publishing companies, as well as neighbours Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Belarus and Ukraine. The 88 international exhibitors also included publishing companies from Germany. The Frankfurt Book Fair's collective stand displayed 423 books from 122 publishing companies. The rights managers from publishing companies Ravensburger, Tessloff, Eugen Ulmer and Franckh-Kosmos came to Vilnius in person.

There is generally a high level of interest in German literature among the Lithuanians. According to the Börsenverien des Deutschen Buchhandels (German Publishers and Booksellers Association), 125 German titles were translated into Lithuanian in 2007, with children's and teen books accounting for the biggest proportion of 42 titles, followed by how-to manuals with 35 titles.

Fair is crowd-puller

With around 200 events, the fair is a big attraction for the public. Readings with international writers such as Alfredo Abarca (Argentina), Andrei Kurkov (Ukraine), Sjón (Iceland), Juris Kronbergs (Latvia) and Andrei Makine (France) were talking points. Vilnius is European Capital of Culture for 2009. Visitors to the fair contributed haikus to "Haiku for Vilnius" which will be published on the website http://www.haiku/lt/en and throughout the city. Also this year, Lithuania is celebrating its 1,000ththousand-year anniversary. Readings by Lithuanian authors such as Justinas Marcinkevicius, Algimantas Cekuolis, Danute Kalinauskaite, Martynas Starkus and Filomena Taunyte demonstrated the vibrancy of the Lithuanian publishing scene.

However, the VAT increase has made Lithuanian publishers pessimistic about prospects for the next fair: "I worry for myself and for the reader, our ally, who will probably want to but will not be able to afford to buy the books," says Lolita Varanaviciene, publisher at Tyto alba.

The German publishing industry has been represented with a collective stand at the Baltic Book Fair since 1995. The stand is organised by the Frankfurt Book Fair with funding from the German Federal Foreign Office.

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Šaltinis: Frankfurt Book Fair

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