Article: Parliament will scrap VAT on books: DA

What's stopping retailers from just pushing the price up by 14% due to the usual excuses (exchange rate, petrol prices, inflation etc.)?
 
Good initiative.

It's a pity that Trevor Manuel had such a myopic view on this measure. He was probably just re-iterating what Thabo Mbeki said.
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
They're not being forced to drop prices now.
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Dropping prices would be good for them, they can sell more books. The VAT that is charged doesn't go to the retailer - their profit will stay exactly the same as it is now - it just means they don't have to add 14% for the government anymore.
 
joelus said:
Dropping prices would be good for them, they can sell more books. The VAT that is charged doesn't go to the retailer - their profit will stay exactly the same as it is now - it just means they don't have to add 14% for the government anymore.
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This is SA man, where consumers are seen as cash cows. They'll see it as an opportunity to take the 14% for themselves.

The concept of lower prices = more sales = more profit is foreign to this country.
 
joelus said:
Dropping prices would be good for them, they can sell more books. The VAT that is charged doesn't go to the retailer - their profit will stay exactly the same as it is now - it just means they don't have to add 14% for the government anymore.
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Scrapping VAT isn't meant to help the retailer. My guess is you probably won't see an appreciable sudden drop in prices at Exclusive Books or anything.

But public libraries, school and education suppliers, ordinary students and - hopefully - charities will be the big winners. Us rich folks will just have to carry on paying through the nose as normal!
 
grayston said:
Scrapping VAT isn't meant to help the retailer. My guess is you probably won't see an appreciable sudden drop in prices at Exclusive Books or anything.

But public libraries, school and education suppliers, ordinary students and - hopefully - charities will be the big winners. Us rich folks will just have to carry on paying through the nose as normal!
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I know it's not meant to help the retailer, it's meant to help the consumer and I think we really will see a drop in prices for the consumer.
I hope so anyway! Either way, online book sellers seem to compete for cheapest prices so I'm sure we'd see the drop there.
 
I think that this is a good idea. I believe that the need for general knowledge is universal and could help all of us get along better too. They should do the exact same with internet connection. Internet is considered a human right in many nations, it should be in ours too, especially taking our history of enforced ignorance into account. I don't think that it is a good idea to have a democracy where we can't all voice our views or seek the views of others who aren't merely part of the general mainstream view (MSM/ANC MSM if the new bill goes through)

They should do the exact same with all subsects of the economy which benefit all. Medical research is another example.
 
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copacetic said:
I'd prefer it if they gave a slight **** about municipal libraries rather.
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Agreed!!!

Something really needs to be done about our public libraries. I am happy about this though, every bit helps as textbooks are farking expensive!! Some of these textbooks cost more than R800 per book.
 
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