The 18% increase brings families to their knees, costs have become 'unsustainable and unaffordable'. Stationery imports also down, historic bookshops lay off staff. Book lists are halved, parents looking for discounts and forced to cut back on school supplies. The price of paper has risen by 300%.
Industry associations, academics and writers express alarm over long-term consequences of making books more expensive for the masses The latest salvo against the government’s imposition of value-added tax (VAT) on hitherto exempted sectors came today from Sri Lanka’s book industry, which has called for an immediate reversal of the decision to tax the sale of.