Some books of a college student
The Department of Finance earlier issued Department Order (DO) No. 17-09 which imposed a 1% duty on imported educational, technical, scientific, historical and cultural books and a 5% tariff on other book classifications to be used for profit. The issuance also imposes a 5% tariff on “books or raw materials not to be used for book publishing and its related activities.”
However, books and publications not for sale, barter or hire and those that do not exceed 10 copies of any work when imported by an institution and two copies when imported by an individual will remain duty-free. Importers must prove that the books to be imported would be used for non-profit purposes in order for these to be exempted from the payment of duties.
For a chronology of events that led to this 2009 book blockade, read Manuel L. Quezon III’s blog.
What it means to teachers and students
The imposition of tariff means higher prices of books which will limit many teachers and students’ access to them. Libraries of resource-poor state universities and colleges which operate on restricted budgets will have to make do with obsolete books. And with obsolete books, many teachers and students alike will be denied access to cutting-edge information which will put them at a disadvantage in the job marketplace after graduation.
Our university librarian has described to me its book acquisition procedure. She said that many universities and colleges do not procure books directly from publishers overseas nor susbcribe to technical journals because the banks would not sell them dollars due to the fluctuating exchange of US$ to local currency. In the Visayas and Mindanao, state and private universities and colleges acquire imported books through a cooperative acquistion network called Academic Libraries Book Acquisition Systems Association, Inc. (ALBASA) based in Cebu City. Every year, ALBASA organizes a bookfair where about 30 book dealers from all over the country exhibit imported and locally published books. For some state colleges and universities, acquisition of imported books has been a problem because they are very expensive. Most libraries would acquire locally published books and international student editions because they are cheaper. Tariff on imported books will make books beyond the reach of many state college and universities’ libraries.
What is the book acquisition scenario in your university? Do your college students ever read books? If they don’t, then the new taxes on imported books is a non-issue to them.
Please post your comments.
4 comments
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May 19, 2009 at 10:37 am
sally
I agree with you. This policy will penalize SUC’s, teachers and students as well. If the intention is to increase gov’t revenues, tariffs can be imposed on other goods that are not essential to quality education. At present, maybe only a small percentage of college students read books and with this tariff imposition, the number of students that do read books may decrease.
May 19, 2009 at 9:55 pm
monina escalada
Well said. Today, I was at my old school, UP Diliman, and had a chat with one of my closest friends. She told me how she succeeded in getting all her students to read. On the first day of class, she distributed and discussed her course outline and readings for each topic. Then she announced that from the next meeting onwards, the students will do the talking and she won’t give a lecture. Her seating arrangement was circular and each student in the class was required to talk about the topic assigned for that day. As she sat with the students, she also contributed her own ideas. Everyone pitched in his/her understanding and critical analysis of the topic but to do so, the students knew that they had to read the assigned readings first.
I will try her participatory pedagogy in the first semester.
September 1, 2009 at 4:17 pm
sha
I think that the imposition of additional tariffs on imported books will only contribute to the declining rate of book readers since many could no longer afford to buy one.
January 10, 2010 at 11:18 pm
Mustafa
Plz. Iwant Tariff code for: Books, Software, Electronic, CDs and DVDs, Foam Puzzle, Wooden Puzzle, Dolls, Cards and Posters, Stickers