Legislative Initiative to Abolish Income Tax for Press

The Parliament of Georgian is going to discuss the abolition of income tax for the Georgian press. The initiative for the abolition of income tax for print media was submitted today, November 13 by Eliso Chapidze of the Parliamentary majority.

According to former journalist Eliso Chapidze the income tax annually delivered to the budget is minor while this sum is huge for the media outlets to develop. She hopes the Parliament is going to issue a positive decision.

Lasha Tughushi, the representative of the Georgian Press Association and Editor-in-chief of the Georgian daily Rezonansi supports the initiative of the abolishment of income tax. He believes the initiative lodged to the parliament would be an incentive for media. Lasha Tughushi thinks that along with this initiative the plan for the free distribution of press should be considered that will conducive to the freedom of press distribution in every region. “Since some vague norms used to be applied in regard to press distribution print media faced problems with distribution. The booths for news agents were frequently removed. As a rule the process was under someone’s control. To settle this issue the legal defense of media is necessary,” says Tughushi.

Print media has been enjoying other tax benefits since 2004. Press has been free of the 18 percent VAT.

Gela Bochikashvili, media.ge