The following is an excerpt from a statement by Kelli Magnus of the Book Industry Association of Jamaica (BIAJ) in response to the imposition of general consumption tax (GCT) on general books (excluding academic and religious). It has been edited to fit in this space.

It is ironic that at a time when we celebrate our children and focus on their needs, we find ourselves discussing a proposal, the primary victims of which will be our nation's children. The members of the BIAJ fully appreciate the urgency of the financial crisis which has driven the Government to search for emergency measures to increase revenue. However, as concerned citizens, we feel compelled to advise when decisions taken in the name of short-term fiscal urgency threaten to sacrifice our long-term development objectives. The imposition of the general consumption tax on books will have serious implications for literacy, education and national development, which cannot be outweighed by the incremental tax revenue the measures will yield. To put it bluntly, what the Government will earn from this tax is a fraction of what it will cost the nation to undo the damage.

Potential risks

Six years ago, when the then Government moved to impose GCT on books, the BIAJ rallied, as it is doing now, to highlight the potential risks of such a measure. I am saddened that we should have to make the same arguments again. If anything, the risk to national development is greater now than it was six years ago. The rate of functional literacy is still too low; unemployment has risen, productivity has fallen; crime and violence have escalated exponentially. By any measure, we should be doing everything we can to support, not stymie those sectors that strengthen the intellectual capacity of our citizens.

We, the members of the BIAJ are businesspeople - we're booksellers and publishers - and, of course, we are concerned about the impact on the bottomline. But our business is books. Our long-term health and sustainability depend on having a literate, intellectually curious population with the capacity to think and reason critically. It's not coincidental that we consider ourselves partners in national development - those qualities that make a Jamaican a good customer for a bookseller or a publisher are the same qualities that make him or her a good citizen. Our opposition to the proposed tax on recreational books is therefore not just a matter of self-interest, but concern for the national good.

The critical role of literacy

As it has been on the two previous occasions when it opposed GCT on books, the BIAJ's purpose is not to criticise the Government, but to remind it of the critical role that literacy plays in our development and the threat to these efforts that the proposed tax would pose.

There are three key concerns which we wish the Government to keep in mind:

1. A tax on books will lead to a decline in recreational reading, which has severe implications for literacy and, by extension, for national development.

2. Undermining recreational reading will undermine the literacy objectives of the Ministry of Education and the initiatives it is currently undertaking to promote reading and literacy. In an effort to raise money, we risk diluting the potential impact of money we're already spending.

3. The tax will pose severe challenges to the local publishing industry, a critical partner in educational development; and this has serious implications not just for Jamaican education, but for the preservation of our national identity and heritage. The risks are particularly high in the fledgling children's book sector, where price considerations already thwart the development of the kind of rich local literary environment that a country of our creativity ought to be creating for its children.

Against these risks we must weigh the negligible tax revenue which the Government stands to gain from recreational books, and the question we must ask ourselves is: 'Is it worth the risk?'