Mihai Mitrica, director of the Romanian Publishers Association, said at the opening of Bookfest Chisinau: “In the Republic of Moldova you managed to keep the VAT on books 0% – I congratulate you and envy you. In Romania, VAT has increased from 5% to 11%, which will be quite problematic for many publishers”.
The VAT increase affects not only Romanian publishers, but also Moldovan publishers.
Gheorghe Prinh, chairman of the Union of Publishers of Moldova, explained, “Today there is no serious publisher in Moldova that is not present on the Romanian market. This means that we have to pay 11% VAT at customs, which has put us in a difficult situation – prices will rise and the export-import procedures will become more complicated”.
He added: “We have a lot of problems in the book publishing sector. Moldova and Romania are among the last countries in Europe in terms of books published per capita. In recent years, the number of titles published has been decreasing. Three years ago we had 2,700 titles, now we have 2,400, although the total volume of published books has increased – circulation has increased, books have become more voluminous. At this Book Salon we will discuss the existing problems, but after September 28, so that these topics are not used for political purposes”.
Sergiu Prodan, Minister of Culture, emphasized the importance of the population’s access to printed culture and spoke about the government’s actions to support publishers:
“In a situation where everything is becoming more expensive – paper, printing, all services – a book cannot become cheaper. But it should not become more expensive either. The government has programs to support printed culture, we are actively involved in supporting Moldovan authors, who are interesting in European countries and all over the world, so that they are translated and published. We have a program to support translations and publishing of our authors’ books by foreign publishing houses. We have already encountered many bureaucratic obstacles. The Ministry of Culture has great difficulties in making financial transfers abroad, so we will find another mechanism to finance foreign publishing houses that translate and publish authors from Moldova. At the state level, every effort should be made to reduce the tax burden on book publishing”.
From September 3 to 7, the Mediacor Center hosts the 8th International Book Fair Bookfest Chișinău. Visitors will have the opportunity to get acquainted with the best books and meet prominent cultural figures from Romania and Moldova.
The period of the event has been postponed from August to September. The organizers hope that the return of students and schoolchildren will give the exhibition a new impetus, as young people are its main audience.
