Photocopy paper, which is used for many other things as well, involving the printing of original work, is to be subject to a new 4-percent tax in order to help pay for intellectual copyrights, according to an amendment which has been presented to Parliament. This is the outcome of a dispute between artists, photographers and publishers and companies in which information technology companies seem to have gotten away freely while paper sellers have not.

In the original draft, computers were to be hit with an extra 2-percent tax as they were seen as tools for the copying of items protected by intellectual property rights. After information technology companies protested, this levy was scrapped and it was left to the purchasers of paper to finance the system.

Companies in the paper market are now protesting that nowhere else in Europe has an intellectual property tax been slapped on paper, being kept instead to the purchase of photocopiers (which are already subject to a 4 percent tax to this end). Publishers, artists and photographers, however, are pressing with lawsuits for the 4-percent tax on paper.