Tamil Nad

Magazine publishers demand pending dues

The Tamil Nadu Magazine Publishers’ Association (TAMPA) has written to Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, appealing for the release of dues pending to magazines from libraries across the State.

R. Sakthivel, president, TAMPA, said the amount pending for the year 2019-2020 was yet to be released.

“Initially, the Directorate of Public Libraries said that 50% of the amount would be released first. However, even this has been done only in a few districts,” Mr. Sakthivel said.

Lockdown woes

He said that this was a severe blow to several magazines that had already taken a huge hit because of the economic slowdown due to COVID-19 and its subsequent lockdown.

In the letter, TAMPA also emphasised the need to increase the percentage of revenue that each library was allowed to spend on subscriptions of magazines and newspapers.

“An upper limit of 6.5% of the revenue was set four decades ago, but this was not put into practice. This year, the directorate has stressed that the amount spent on magazines cannot exceed 6.5%,” Mr. Sakthivel noted.

He added that this was unreasonable and appealed to the Chief Minister to increase the limit to at least 20%.

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