Fact Check: Has GST been imposed on school books

New Delhi, July 12: In its 47th meeting held in June, the Goods and Service Tax (GST) Council decided to impose a GST in certain daily use items.

Now a post has gone viral on the social media claiming that the Centre has imposed taxes on all school books.

OneIndia searched for such a decision that was made but found none. We found a report as per India Filings, a cloud based platform that provides accounting and financial services. The report makes it clear that there is no tax on printed books.

There is nothing specific on school text books, but the GST Council of India says that there is no tax on printed books, including those in Braille. It has also been clarified that GST will not be applicable to newspapers, journals, periodicals and children's colouring and drawing books.

The PIB Fact Check had in 2020 busted a similar viral claim. It was clarified that no tax had been levied on school books. Hence it is clear that books are exempt from tax.

Taxes are however levied on printing, binding, paper pulp, exercise books, graphs and writers' royalties.

Hence this makes it clear that there is no GST that has been imposed on school books and the viral claim is fake.