Bookstore rent compensation program should apply without restrictions – Viatrovych
Verkhovna Rada lawmaker and member of the Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy Volodymyr Viatrovych (European Solidarity faction) believes the bookstore rent compensation program should apply to all bookstores, regardless of the size of the settlement or their income level.
European Solidarity faction lawmaker Volodymyr Viatrovych argues the bookstore rent compensation program should apply without restrictions to all bookstores. He asserts the government is failing to provide proper support to the book industry, which Russian aggression is destroying. The resolution on subsidies for bookstores, which officials are reporting on, shows the government's unwillingness to comply with the existing state support law for book publishing in Ukraine.
The law guarantees the state will reimburse all legally operating bookstores not selling Russian or Russian-language books for the rent cost, equal to 20% of book sales revenue. The subsidy mechanism is clear, transparent, and should operate automatically with minimal expenditure. Viatrovych highlights the government's provision that only bookstores in cities with populations under 100,000 can receive the subsidy, and the income limit of about UAH 10 million is absurd.
He claims the government has deprived about 90% of Ukrainian bookstores of the subsidy right. Viatrovych urges the revision of illegal government decisions and urges the full effect of Article 8-2 of the Law of Ukraine on State Support for Book Publishing in Ukraine, starting from January 1 next year.
Written by urgent.news from Interfax-Ukraine's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
