To:

Vice Chancellor of Universities in India, Directors of Institutes in India, and Librarians in India.

Dear Sir,

We take this opportunity to bring to your attention a matter of serious concern to all Booksellers / Subscription Agents / Vendors who subsist on the meagre discounts they receive for all the services they render to Libraries in the country.

It has been observed over the last couple of years that more and more Foreign Publishing Houses are becoming direct suppliers of books, journals and e-resources to our Educational and other Institutes of Higher Learning. This is a deviation from the past practices and which were serviced by approved Indian Vendors / Subscription Agents.

Ever since Independence, the Indian Agent or library Supplier has played a very vital role in catering to the needs of the Indian Libraries at all levels. In fact, the Indian Agents of foreign and Indian publishers have been the link all over the country in taking care of the needs of all Libraries and making untiring efforts in securing books/journals from all corners of the world. It is therefore disturbing to note that Foreign Publishers are now canvassing for direct orders and are also supplying Library Resources from overseas to our Educational Institutes. In return the Institutes are also going a step further and paying for these requirements directly in foreign currencies. We have to emphasize that not only their losses in terms of revenue of the Indian Booksellers, but their very existence is threatened or called a question.

It may be pertinent to mention that in the past all orders which were routed through Indian companies, not only provided business opportunities to wholly owned Indian entities but also these companies had to pay taxes to the Indian Government on commission earned by them. In the current scenario, no taxes are paid by foreign companies as the payments are received in full overseas.

It is to be noted that while Libraries are communicating with foreign organizations for the bulk of their requirements which are essentially e-resource, they are approaching the Indian vendors only for small orders of books or other printed literature. We hereby appeal to Libraries to give us the opportunity to service their complete requirements which would immensely benefit the local industry.

The Good Offices Committee is, therefore, sending this Appeal to all Libraries in India that they should route their requirements for any foreign books, journals and e-resources through Indian companies / agents or vendors so that their Libraries continue to receive the highest level of services. We hope you will support our stand as well as that of the Federation of Publishers and Booksellers’ Association in India who have made this very important and valid recommendation.

Thanking You,
Yours faithfully,

S.C. Sethi

Chairman

Source of this information: http://fpbai.org/page/an_appeal