Rendi Witular, Jakarta – The Finance Ministry will soon issue a regulation that will eliminate value-added tax (VAT) and income tax for the importation of non-fiction books, a move that is expected to help the public afford international resources deemed beneficial for domestic development.

Finance Minister Chatib Basri said on Wednesday that a ministerial regulation was prepared for the tax exemption, which would take effect sooner than later.

"The state gains little from taxing imported books. So why should we maintained the policy if scrapping the taxes could actually create bigger gains in terms of knowledge and perspective," said Chatib.

"We expect the public could soon afford books that are actually beneficial for development," he said. In combined, the VAT and income tax for imported books account for around 10 to 20 percent of the book price.