Parliament has approved by a vote of 108 to 61 the government bill to introduce a 9% VAT levy on journal and newspaper subscriptions from the beginning of next year. The passing of the law was secured by votes from the government parties.
Currently a zero tax rate is in use for newspaper and magazine subscriptions that are a minimum of six months in duration.
In the case of daily newspapers (with the obvious exception of the late-edition tabloids), subscriptions are the norm in Finland rather than newsstand sales.
Many weekly and monthly magazines are also predominantly distributed via subscription sales and mail delivery.
Finland was given an exclusive right to continue its support for the press when it joined the EU.
Once the dispensation has been waived it cannot be restored.
The government reckons that the return from the introduced tax will be in the region of EUR 90 million per year.
The printed media, in turn, does not believe in such large tax return estimates.
Instead, it believes the price rise may lead to cancellations of newspaper and magazine subscriptions.
Parliamentary Finance Committee chairman Kimmo Sasi (Nat. Coalition Party) blamed the press on Tuesday (see earlier article) for poor lobbying during the preparation of the law.
Sasi also said that the Moska-type publications do not further democracy, even when their subscriptions are not taxed. Moska is a fictional tabloid magazine (based loosely on periodicals at the gossipy and scandal-flavoured end of the market) in a current Finnish television comedy series.
Journalists' Union chairman Arto Nieminen is of the opinion that Sasi has revealed his brashness and ignorance when it comes to the Finnish media and journalistic work.
”How strangeit is that the chairman of an important parliamentary committee starts to blather about the quality of the media by using a fictional television series as an example, when Parliament is about to decide on an issue that will have repercussions for a field that employs tens of thousands of Finns and that is important from the state economy point of view as well”, declared an astonished Nieminen.
