‘Kids forced to buy school supplies, our biz cratering’

Panaji: Several schools across the state have started selling supplies in-house, some even making it mandatory to purchase notebooks and other items from agencies engaged by the schools.

This has upset bookstore owners across Goa, who have now approached the chief minister’s office (CMO), requesting it to end commercial activities inside schools. Booksellers allege that at times employees of schools run the business, also putting pressure on parents to buy only from them.

They alleged that there are cases of schools selling notebooks and stationery to students at much higher cost than market rates, under the pretext of collecting funds for school infrastructure. Recently, the CM warned schools receiving govt aid against charging any kind of fees from students as infrastructure fund.

“We the members of the Goa Book Sellers Association would like to bring to your notice that many schools in the state are indulging in commercial activities like selling of notebooks and school stationery items,” Chandrakant Pandit, the president of the Goa Book Sellers Association, said in his petition to CMO.

The petition added, “Many managements have made it compulsory that the student/ward purchases the items from the institute even though many a time the value paid is much higher than the market rates.”

Pandit said, “These institutes are not registered with the commercial tax department under the GST regime nor with the income tax department and there is no disclosure of income.”

“It is due to this that our businesses are suffering losses and our total sales values have dropped drastically. Many booksellers in the state are dependent on the local area schools to run their businesses,” Pandit said. “It is our earnest plea to you to put an end to this long-standing problem and taking disciplinary action against the erring institutions.”

Another bookseller said that there are some cases of people from outside Goa coming to the state at the start of the academic year and offering discounts on stationery supplies to school principals once a year.

“They do their business and leave, without any overheads. Most schools have started doing business instead of focusing on imparting quality education to students. Goan shop owners like me who pay rent and taxes suffer,” he said.