PKR’s Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar today criticised the government for “knowledge taxation”, urging that all books be made zero-rated items in the goods and services tax (GST) exempt list.

Nurul Izzah called it “highly immoral” to “tax knowledge”, saying that the move will discourage the people from acquiring good reading habits.

The government had only zero-rated several types of books - such as exercise books, dictionaries, textbooks, children’s illustrated books and religious texts.

But she said that all books must be zero-rated in pursuit of knowledge and learning.

“These classifications are loose, open to interpretation and invite abuse,” she said.

What about the novels that are used as references in universities?" She asked.

 
She said that the price of books will still go up due to extra administrative costs that publishers will have incur in implementing the GST.
 
"Their work is made even more complicated with the small number of zero rated items which they are eligible to claim back taxes from the government," she said.
 
"Knowledge taxation is highly immoral. This taxation, combined with our declining education standards, is a double whammy for all Malaysians," she added.

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