Every one does know that "Books & Journals" are still the main tools of education with which many modern instruments & technologies have also been added as the world is progressing. In respect of higher education in any field(s) whether it is Humanities, Social Science, Medical or Engineering one cannot think about not having any foreign publications as our publishing industry is yet to come up with any such publications which are comparable to the publications of the United States, Europe etc. We are still fully dependent on the international publishers which are fulfilling the requirements of our higher education.

A truly international publication does not have any frontier and most countries of the world are following the policy of free flow of publications without having any restrictions as they also follow the Unesco agreements like the Florence Agreement not to create any obstacles by imposing import duty, import surcharge, Vat & other charges etc on books & journals.

Unfortunately, both the Awami League & BNP governments in the past ignored this very important aspect & imposed import duty on certain categories of publications. During the tenure of the AL, initially the import duty was proposed @ 15% on fictions, biographies, travelogues etc as if reading such books was a big crime. However, it was reduced to 5% immediately after announcement due to the strong opposition by the elite citizens & the media. Later on, the immediate past BNP government imposed import surcharge & AIT (Advance Income Tax) on all categories of publications including text reference books, dictionaries, encyclopedias & had another category as "Other Books" on which a 15% duty was payable. The term "Other Books" is a very vague term and the customs authorities in many cases categorized even Text Reference books as "Other Books"- just to show their efficiency in collecting revenue for the government.

Being repeatedly harassed, importers virtually stopped importing all categories of general books, world classics, biographies, fictions, travelogues etc & thus only the readers of Bangladesh suffered. However, when a very limited number of such publications were imported paying import duty, import surcharge, VAT, AIT & all other import costs- the prices were always logically much higher than that of the original publisher's price!!

It seems that the sayings of "Lekha Para Kore Je Gari Chapa Pore Se" mentioned in one of Satyajit Ray's films is the hidden policy of political governments as they feel it good to keep people uneducated and uninformed! So imposition of duty, taxes on books & other educational materials & creating other hindrances is the best way for implementing such a hidden agenda! We even came to know that the Bangladesh Paper Manufacturers & Merchants Association made a full-page newspaper appeal to the government in the past with the proposal to impose 45% import duty on foreign books & journals on the lame excuse of protecting the Bangladesh paper & publishing industry!!!

We do hope that the pro-people CTG will consider full withdrawal of all import duty, import surcharge payable at import point, Vat payable at supply/selling point on all categories of publications so that the students, teachers, researchers, & general readers can be benefited by getting the books & journals (that are acceptable to all) they need at a cheaper price

It will be a big contribution of the CTG to the people of Bangladesh.