Private publishers have demands more clarity on textbook copyrights policy issued by the Maharashtra State Bureau of Textbook Production and Curriculum Research (Balbharati) recently. They said they will incur huge losses if the books are sold at current market price, as they are going to spend lakhs of rupees to get the license.
On March 9, Balbharati announced that to curb commercialisation of education, they will copyright their textbooks for Classes 1 to 9. The notice also stated that publishing any book with excerpts from a Balbharati textbook without proper permission will be liable for legal action. The bureau announced its textbook copyright policy on May 25, restricting private publishers from issuing supplementary books for the academic year 2018-2019.
According to the new policy, private publishers will have to get a license from the bureau, which will have to be renewed every year. The license fees is Rs 63,000 for print, Rs 31,000 for digital, and Rs 35,000 for tutorials, per medium, per subject, per grade. Publishers with a turnover of less than Rs10 lakh, will be exempted from this fees, says the policy.
One of the private publishers said, "There is no clarity on the policy. We are unable to sell books that were printed before the policy was announced."
Mandar Nerurkar, Ideal book depot, said, "We are not selling the supplementary books of Classes 1 to 9, as there is no clarity on whether those books can be sold. Publishers need to get a license before we sell their books. We will wait till June 15, when the schools will reopen."
