During discussions, the officials said, “Most of the printing units are engaged in printing of customised printing products, whether the paper is supplied by the printer from his own source or whether the paper is supplied by the client. In both the cases, the ownership of the printed materials rests with the clients as the content is provided by the client and the matters are customised in nature.”

Under the circumstances, wherever the printing units are engaged in producing customised printed material, they would be treated as “supply of Printing Services” and would be subjected to GST rates as per serial No 26 & 27 of Notification 11 – Central Tax (Rates) dated 28 June 2017, i.e. 18%. It is worth mentioning here that GST rates given under Chapter 48 and 49 in the notification no 1/2017-integrated tax (rate) issued on 28 June 2017 are contrary and 250,000 printing companies of India are confused about the implementation of these two different notifications.

Reacting to the above clarification, Prof Kamal Chopra, President All India Federation of Master Printers (AIFMP) said, “I fail to understand the legitimacy of GST rates given under Chapter 48 and 49 in the notification no 1/2017-integrated tax (rate) issued on 28 June 2017 if the printing is now considered under supply of services.” There can’t be any other ‘manufacturer’ for brochures, leaflets, etc other than a printer and the ownership contents in such cases remain with the client only.

Prof. Chopra contended that if printing is under supply of services why Chapter 49 is there? For the sake of clarity, either Chapter 49 may be removed or printed products may be classified to be ‘supply of goods’.

Speaking on the occasion, Anand Limaye, HGS of AIFMP said, “During the pre-GST regime, printing was exempted from service tax and we were subject to pay VAT only, so how to withstand such a steep increase, is another point of concern.”

He said, in India there are 250,000 printing companies and most of these are micro or small in size. Only handful of printers is in medium category. The industry is already suffering due to high capital cost and increasing global competition. Printing is the major tool for the spread of education and with such a high rate of GST the educational books and stationery is going to be costly affecting the campaign to make India fully literate.

Arvind Mardikar, honourary treasurer, AIFMP, added that on the one end with the consideration of printing as supply of services the GST rates will increase to the second maximum and at the other end the printed books can be imported without any duty or IGST. He further said that the cost of paper is already higher due to import duty on paper and with this increase in the GST rates the import of printed book will increase due to high cost of printing at local printing units. He said it is not out of place to mention that tomorrow may be our religious books like The Ramayana, The Quran, The Bible, The Guru Granth Sahib, etc. will be printed in China because there is no import duty of IGST on printed books.

Prof. Kamal Chopra added, AIFMP is the apex body of 250,000 printing companies in India and is the largest printers association in the world. On behalf of these printers, he said AIFMP would like to ask the government through media to clarify our following points:

1. If printers are under Supply of Manufacturing Services then why Chapter 48/ 49 is there where printed items are given under ‘Supply of Goods’

2. There is no duty/IGST on the import of printed books, with the imposition of second highest GST rates on printing products it may not be possible to strive the global completion which mean death of Indian Printing Industry

3. When Printing was exempted from service tax during pre GST era why it was brought under ‘Supply of Manufacturing Services’

4. Why confusion is being created by issuing two separate notifications GST is different at Chapter 49 and 9989. How and who will use 4901 for the printing of brochure, leaflets, etc at 5% GST