Book publishers demand duty-free paper import

Bangladesh Pustak Prokashok O Bikreta Samity, an association of book publishers and sellers, urged the government on Tuesday to withdraw duty on the import of papers, protesting 'unusual' price hike of the item, reports BSS.

The association came up with the demand at a press conference held at Jatiya Press Club in the capital.

Reading out a written statement, Samity president Arif Hossain Choton said if duty on paper import could not be minimised in view of the growing paper demand, an unstable siltation would emerge soon in the paper market of the country.

He said if papers cannot be imported with soft duty or duty-free, there will be a crisis of papers ahead of the textbook distribution programme that the government takes every new year and the Amar Ekushey Book Fair.

A five-point demand was put forward at the press conference. The demand included declaring paper import as duty-free, applying used papers in recycling work, making the stored papers available in market and giving incentive or subsidy to importing papers.