In the rest of the world, an electronic book is sold at one third of the price of the printed book. Not in Turkey.

Electronic books are cheaper than printed books all around the world. In Turkey, printed books are cheaper. The Ministry of Finance must have a reason. I mean, I don’t get it, but I want to believe they have a reason. Anyway.

I have added Haruki Murakami to the list of my favorite authors. I read 1Q84 last year. Yesterday I saw on D&R bookstore’s webpage that the wonder book had been translated and printed in Turkish as well. You can order it online; the printed one for delivery to your house and the electronic one for direct download to your computer. At that moment, Turkey seemed to be highly developed. Yet, there was a problem: the printed version was 35.49 liras while the electronic version was 37 liras. For the former, additional costs such as printing, distribution, and typesetting apply, but no such costs apply to the latter. The one with higher production costs has a lower price. In the rest of the world, an electronic book is sold at one third of the price of the printed book. Not in Turkey. Here, the value added tax ratio is 8 percent for printed books and 18 percent for electronic books. On the entire planet, only Turkey’s Ministry of Finance has a different view on this issue. I wish they would explain why as well. I think the reason why electronic commerce is not developed in Turkey lies in the Ministry of Finance.

In the rest of the world, e-books have been replacing printed ones. According to a recent article in The Guardian, 53 percent of the book sales on Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, took place electronically via the company’s e-book reader, Kindle. Currently, 1,861,915 different e-books are sold on Amazon. Written out: one million eight hundred and sixty-one thousand, nine hundred and fifteen. You notice the electronic version as soon as it is released and you read it as soon as you order it. Incredibly convenient and cheap. Electronic books are sold online in Turkey as well. On D&R’s website, for instance, 6772 different e-books are available. Written out: six thousand seven hundred and seventy-two. Not even comparable to Amazon’s collection. Why? Because Turkey’s Ministry of Finance is living in the past. Since the 1980s, many ministries in Turkey have been transformed, but the Ministry of Finance is not among them.

In Turkey around 25 million people use the Internet. This figure puts Turkey among the top five in Europe, Russia included. In normal countries, the total value of e-commerce rises as the number of Internet users increases. Not in Turkey. In terms of the share of e-commerce in total retail trade, Turkey is not in the top ten in Europe, according to 2011’s numbers. We have electricity, Internet access, and a large number of Internet users. But e-commerce is crawling. The share of e-commerce in total retail trade is above 10 percent in the UK and in Northern Europe. In Turkey, the number is barely 2 percent. Why? Because of the Ministry of Finance. In this country, no one cares about consumer-friendly options. This is the very reason why Turkey consumes the most expensive meat and milk in Europe and why an e-book is more expensive than the printed version. Here in Turkey, we take into account anything except the consumer. Each and every interest group has a lobby, except consumers.

Turkey has been stuck at a crossroads as long as I have known myself, occupied with overestimating itself.

Turkey has not taken the time to look around and follow the changes in the world. It has got stuck in puberty. It has failed to fulfill its potential.

This commentary was published in Radikal daily on 22.02.2013