The Education Committee of Parliament is appealing to the government to grant local printing firms tax rebates on some of its imported materials used for their production.
The committee says such a move will help reduce the cost of textbooks in the country as compared to imported ones.
The call comes after the committee embarked on an inspection tour at Appointed Time Printing Limited, one of the printing firms designated by the government to print science textbooks for basic schools as part of the new curriculum.
Speaking to the media, the Chairman of the committee, Kwabena Amankwa Asiamah says the rebates will go a long way for local printing firms to compete with the international market.
“The printing houses are doing well. They were given the order to print textbooks on the 1st of June and they were mandated to finish on the 27th of August. But it looks like all of them will finish before the 27th of August.
“My appeal to the government is to consider giving them some form of tax rebate if it is educational. This is because in terms of importation of their raw material, it makes their books a little bit costly and it’s more expensive than those that come from China and India because they don’t pay anything at all when they bring in their finished product”.
The General Manager of the Appointed Time Printing Limited Jacqueline Afful also revealed that out of the 800,000 science textbooks mandated to be distributed for basic schools across the country, 600,000 have already been done.
She added that the firm is determined to print and distribute the remaining 200,000 textbooks by end of August 2022.
The Deputy Ranking Member of the committee, Clement Apaak also called on printing firms to ensure that the textbooks for the basic schools are delivered on time.
