14 March 2014
For immediate release
VAT on digital
media will contribute to South African
Higher
Education Libraries losing over 40% of their purchasing power
South African Higher Education
Libraries have little to celebrate as they prepare for the national South
African Library Week (SALW)(15 -22 March 2014), due to the double whammy of unfavourable
exchange rates and the introduction of VAT on electronic material.
The provision of scholarly electronic information to the
higher education and training system is like provision of oxygen by the lungs
to an athlete. Without a plentiful and fresh supply, there is no way the
athlete can compete.
This library service is essential for world class tertiary
learning, teaching and research because the majority of academic e-journals,
e-books, and bibliographic databases (including video and image databases) are
published in Europe and North America. This includes research produced by academics
from South African universities. Cutting edge research and teaching are
dependent on access to the latest published research results in these journals.
Without such material higher education in South Africa would fall behind the
rest of the world. In fact, in an effort to stimulate world-class research, certain
higher education research funding is made available by the Department of Higher
Education and Training (DHET) on condition that academics publish their
research in prestigious, high impact, overseas journals.
Scholarly electronic information resources from overseas
publishers are purchased in Euros, Dollars and Pounds Sterling. The Rand has depreciated heavily over major
currencies, losing 33% of its value against the Euro in two years (29% against
the USD), 24% of its value over the past year (15% against the USD) to 12 March
2014. Now National Treasury is introducing 14% VAT on all electronic material
with effect from 1 April 2014. While VAT can be claimed back in certain
circumstances, the reality is that this 14% loss from certain library budgets
will never be recovered.
Ms Laila Vahed, Chairperson of the South African National
Library and information Consortium (SANLiC) sums it up like this: “Because of
other pressures bearing on higher education budgets, including the fact that
state funding for universities has not kept pace with enrolment growth, it is
unlikely that libraries will be able to recover these losses from their
relative institutional funds. This will hit libraries at previously
disadvantaged institutions the most due to a lack of capacity to recover VAT
and a dependency on library consortia deals where they rely on the
participation of larger institutions to access material at an affordable,
reduced price.”
The combined effect of these events is that higher education
library purchasing power has effectively been cut by over 40% between 2013 and
2014. Fewer resources will be made available
to students for learning, to lecturers for teaching and to researchers for
producing world class research. Open access material does not escape these
challenges because the access is made possible through a “producer pays” model
that will also impact directly on library budgets.
Libraries are already being forced to cut back on their
planned journal and database subscriptions as well as purchases of e-books and
other electronic material. This could
mean that, on top of having access to less of the cutting edge publications,
South African researchers, lecturers and students will not have access to some
of the research produced by South African academics and researchers which is
usually financed from the national fiscus.
Ms Lucile Webster, Chairperson of the National Council for
Library and Information Services (NCLIS) is quick to point out that, “we must
not forget that public libraries also subscribe to online resources for the
general public. After all, the mandate
of the public library is to be the local gateway to knowledge, to promote
lifelong learning, independent decision- making and cultural development of the
individual and society at large. The public library is seen as the institution
that will bridge the digital divide for the masses and is recognized as a key
factor in achieving the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations. To ensure that information is disseminated as
widely as possible public libraries have embraced the digital world. The introduction of 14% VAT will compromise
access to a resource (public library) that is generally thought of as ‘the poor
man’s university’.”
This Bill of Rights, the “cornerstone of democracy in South
Africa” states in chapter 2, 29.(b), that everyone has the right to “further
education, which the state, through reasonable measures, must make
progressively available and accessible.”.
·
The white paper on Higher Education and Training
(approved by Cabinet on 20 November 2013), the “definitive statement of the
government’s vision for the post-school system” (p.vii) spells out the DHET’s
intention to “expand access, improve quality and increase diversity of
provision.” (p. xi) In addition, it makes it clear that the DHET wishes to
increase research and innovation, improving the quality of research, and
building on areas of strength identified as important for national development.
(P.xiv). In spite of important strides made, the statement acknowledges that “South
Africa is still not producing enough SET (Science, Engineering and Technology)
graduates to meet its economic development objectives” (p.28).
·
The Department of Science and Technology DST’s
Strategic Plan for 2011-2016 (p.4) lists similar goals and objectives: “To
build world-class STI [Science, Technology and Innovation] infrastructure to
extend the frontiers of knowledge, train the next generation of researchers and
enable technology development and transfer as well as knowledge interchange.”
Introducing 14% VAT on digital media is at best creating
unprecedented strain on already stretched national assets and at worst is
unconstitutional.
It is for these reasons that the higher education library
fraternity, represented by CHELSA, LIASA, NCLIS and SANLiC are united in
calling for a rethink on the implementation of 14% VAT on scholarly electronic
information by Treasury with effect from 1 April 2014. In addition the
fraternity is calling for urgent, co-ordinated and inclusive initiatives to
remedy the squeeze on library assets.
Ujala Satgoor, President of the
Library and Information Association of South Africa (LIASA), stated that, “academic
libraries and librarians are critical partners to the research endeavours of
South African universities by concertedly providing 24/7 on-site and remote
access to current, relevant and appropriate electronic resources to students,
academics and researchers. Without sufficient access to cutting edge,
world-class, scholarly electronic information the South African higher
education system cannot meet the national learning, teaching, research and
innovation objectives to strengthen our economy and facilitate a better life
for all.”
Satgoor stressed that, “the imposition
of 14% VAT on electronic resources will further exacerbate constrained library
resources budgets influenced by annual price increases and fluctuating exchange
rates.” She went on to say that, “well-resourced
academic and research libraries are intrinsic to the DHET academic and research
objectives. Without access to up-to-date
world research the government’s aim to engender a knowledge economy, will be
compromised!”
Dr Buhle Mbambo-Thata,
Chairperson of CHELSA put it this way: “This will have major negative effects
on teaching, learning, and research and erode gains so far made in global
rankings of South African
universities. Furthermore, it will have
direct effect on students as the cost of servicing them will be passed onto
them.”
Webster (NCLIS) stated that, “since
South Africa’s democratic transition in 1994, the right to education and access
to information for knowledge became a priority to right the wrongs of the past.
Studies have shown that South African learners lag far behind their peers in
Africa and in the world. The introduction of VAT of electronic resources will
negate the positive developments that were made these last few years and have
an undesirable impact on the services offered by all kinds of libraries and on
education in general.”
Vahed (SANLiC) added that “these
and other modern library services play a crucial role in addressing the problem
of low throughput rates of students at universities. The lack of adequately
resourced libraries, especially in historically black universities, is
specifically identified as one of the problems that aggravate low graduation
numbers.”
The Department of Higher Education and Training and the
Department of Science and Technology must act immediately by engaging with the
Treasury and the higher education and research library fraternity to remedy the
situation of diminishing library resources by:
·
Placing a moratorium on the introduction of VAT
on scholarly electronic information
·
Allowing for further engagement between
Treasury, DHET and higher education
institutions
·
Working with stakeholders to find solutions to
this resource crisis such as,
o
Centralised purchasing of critical online
information resources as national resources, and
o
Recycling VAT collected to subsidise library
budgets directly
Ends….
Contact
For more information,
contact:
Glenn Truran, SANLiC Director, Tel: 012 683 8559, 012 643
1861, Cell: 082 773 0377,
Email: director@sanlic.org.za
For further comment
please contact the official spokespersons for this press release:
|
Group
|
Name
|
Spokesperson
|
Position
|
Contact details
|
|
CHELSA
|
Committee of Higher
Education Libraries in South Africa
|
Dr Buhle Mbambo-Thata
|
Chairperson
|
UNISA
Tel. 012 429 3131
E-mail: mbambtb@unisa.ac.za
http://www.chelsa.ac.za/
|
|
LIASA
|
Library And Information Association Of South Africa
|
Ujala Satgoor
|
President
|
Rhodes University
Tel: 046 603 8079
E-mail: president@liasa.org.za
http://www.liasa.org.za/
|
|
NCLIS
|
National Council for Library and Information Services
|
Ms Lucile Webster
|
Chairperson
|
Durban University of Technology
Tel: +27 31 3735546
email: websterl@dut.ac.za
|
|
SANLiC
|
South African National Library and information Consortium
|
Ms Laila Vahed
|
Chairperson
|
University of Zululand
Tel:+27 35 902-6462
Email: VahedL@unizulu.ac.za
|
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