New Delhi, Jan 28 (Inditop.com) The New Delhi World Book Fair should be made an annual event, the organisers say as they face a financial crunch.
High rentals, sales tax and a crunch for funds – the National Book Trust (NBT), which is all set to organise the 19th edition of the New Delhi World Book Fair Jan 30-Feb 7, is facing numerous challenges to keep up the tradition of book fairs which aim at encouraging the art of reading.
Bipan Chandra, chairman of the NBT, said: “It’s unfair to impose sales tax on book fairs since last year. We have sent an appeal to the finance minister to exempt all book fairs from being taxed.”
“Why we are saying this is because we give heavy subsidies to publishers in book fairs. For Hindi and other Indian languages book publishers we give a 50 percent subsidy,” he added.
Chandra also said the trust is facing a crunch of funds in organising the fair.
“The New Delhi World Book Fair happens once every two years despite the fact that this is probably the second or the third biggest book fair in the world. Every other major book fair – like the Beijing book fair and the Frankfurt book fair – happen every year,” Chandra said.
“We have written to the human resource development ministry that the fair should be organised every year. We would need a grant of Rs.1,800-1,900 crore to make that happen – now we get much lesser than that,” he added.
The 19th edition of the New Delhi World Book Fair will take place in Pragati Maidan. Almost 1,200 Indian and foreign publishers will showcase their books in the fair, with a special focus on books on sports in India, since the Commonwealth Games are all set to take place in Delhi Oct 3-14.
“Another financial hurdle that we have had to face this year was the rental charged by the Indian Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) that was increased this year for space at Pragati Maidan,” Chandra said.
“As a result of all these financial hindrances, the subsidy that we give publishers is becoming prohibitive. Thus, some publishers are unable to participate in the fair,” he added.
All said, the NBT saw a 70 percent increase in business in the last edition of the fair as compared to the previous years.
“The recession saw increase in the price of books, but business has not been affected for us. We are expecting a big boost in the business this time,” Nuzhat Hassan, director of the NBT said at a press meet here.
