There are more than 140 publishing houses and over 450 bookstores in Uzbekistan.

The lack of material and technical support in most of them negatively impacts the quantity and quality of books, and the value-added tax negatively impacts the growth of book prices and, consequently, their sales.

While several projects are being implemented to encourage book reading, the Democratic Party of Uzbekistan “Milliy Tiklanish” believes that price reduction is one of the important factors in expanding book purchases. To this end, the party is promoting an initiative to introduce value-added tax benefits for book products and their sales.

Tax breaks are one of the most effective ways to support producers. According to the results of studying the experience of 79 foreign countries, VAT is not applied at all in 31 countries. In more than 30 countries, a specially introduced VAT rate on books is lower than the current rates, and in 17 countries, the rates are the same as the current ones. The average VAT rate introduced in 79 countries is 5.75 percent and for e-books – 12.25 percent.

In short, implementing this proposal will promote reading, the publication of high-quality books, and the training of modern, highly qualified personnel. Books’ incomparable role in raising human spirituality requires attention to the issue of publishing high-quality and accessible books.

Mukhtarama Komilova, UzA