Photo: literarky.cz
Prague - The book market has struggled in recent years, but Martin Vopěnka, chairman of the Union of Czech Booksellers and Publishers (SČKN), sees a light at the end of the tunnel thanks to zero VAT. The zero VAT on books, which applies from 1 January 2024, seems to him to be a last-minute rescue. The prices of new books could be at an acceptable level in the future in proportion to wages. Vopěnka told the Czech News Agency. Meanwhile, representatives of culture were worried about the Finance Ministry's considerations to increase VAT on books from 10 to 14 percent, and Vopěnka said it seemed that culture would be "the main loser of the stabilisation package".
"You could say we survived covid a little better than we feared at the beginning, because people found their way to the books online. Maybe they needed books more than ever at that time. The second crisis, the energy crisis, leading to inflation, really got to us. In some months, there was a significant drop in sales. Books were more expensive and sold significantly fewer copies. Zero VAT means a light at the end of the tunnel for us, otherwise we would be in a deep depression this year," Vopěnka said.
Vopěnka, the owner of the publishing house Práh, said publishers have had to get used to declining numbers of books sold, even by very successful authors. "Successful titles make a lot of money, a bestseller used to sell 30,000 copies, now it's half, so it's noticeable in the economy. We're already in different numbers than we were before the covid. But it is still possible to publish books and I believe that with zero VAT it is possible to publish a wider range of more valuable books," Vopěnka said.
CTK/JaV_07
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