Low turnout at book fair, publishers blame GST

Booksellers at Delhi’s annual book festival have complained that their sales have been affected due to various reasons — from violence triggered by the conviction of Dera chief Ram Rahim to hiked prices as a result of GST.

Alleging that the organisers had done little to sell the nine-day-long Delhi Book Fair, the booksellers said that there was no publicity and that they didn’t see many customers. Some even said that they wouldn’t be participating in the next book fair. “Earlier, there were regular announcements at Metro stations where they would also sell fair tickets. But this time, there was nothing. Not even one hoarding of the book fair was visible anywhere outside. And the result is in front of you. We are finding it hard even to recover the money we spent in renting this space,” said Kaushal Goyal, from Pigeon and GBD Books.

The cost of one stall in the fair was `56,000, which according to publishers was some thousands excess in comparison to that of last year’s. “There is no next time for us. This is the last time we are participating in this fair,” he said.

However, ITPO (India Trade Promotion Organisation) denied the allegations saying that the stalls were made available at “subsidised rates.”

“Each of them got a space on subsidised rates. We never increased the price of any stall. The minor increase in prices is because of the taxes,” said an ITPO official.

Moreover, with barely 120 publishers showing up at the fair, the count was significantly lower than last year, which boasted of the presence of 180 plus exhibitors.

The ITPO eventually did turn to radio for the publicity of the book fair. But it was too little too late.

The fair, themed ‘Padhega India, toh badhega India,’ came to a close on Sunday.