Many social media posts claim that Central government of India has imposed GST on schoolbooks.
The post reads: “अनपढ़ रहेगा इण्डिया, तभी तो अंध भक्त बनेगा इण्डिया। स्कूली किताबों पर GST लगाने वाला पहला देश इण्डिया।” (English translation: If India will be uneducated, then only it will become India of blind followers. Indian government has become the first nation of the world to impose GST on schoolbooks”)
The link to the post can be seen here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile did the fact-check, and found it to be false.
On searching Google with appropriate keywords, we found an article published by IRRO (Indian Reprographic Rights Organisation). According to the article, books are exempted from GST, but they are costlier by 10-20%. And the surge in price is due to the fact that inputs like printing, binding and royalties to authors now attract a tax of 12 per cent. Since the publishers don’t get an input tax credit, they now propose to pass it on to customers.
Printed books, braille books, newspapers, journals and periodicals, children’s pictures, and drawings or colouring books have also been exempted from the tax regime.
As per the PIB Fact Check tweet, Central government has not imposed any tax on schoolbooks. The tweet reads: “दावा: सोशल मीडिया पर यह दावा किया जा रहा कि केंद्र सरकार ने स्कूली किताबों पर टैक्स लगा दिया है। #PIBFactCheck: यह दावा फर्जी है। स्कूली टेक्स्ट बुक्स पर कोई टैक्स नहीं है।” (English translation: It is being claimed on social media that Central government has imposed a tax on schoolbooks. #PIBFactCheck: This claim is false. There is no tax on school textbooks)
Hence, we can ascertain that the viral post is fake.
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