APGAI, APPMA reject hike in paper prices by local mills

KARACHI: Paper merchants have rejected enormous increase in the paper prices by the local paper mills and urged the federal government for reduction in the taxes at import stage.

Addressing a joint press conference at Karachi Press Club on Tuesday, representative of Pakistan Association of Printing Graphic Art Industry (APGAI) and All Pakistan Paper Merchants Association (APPMA) said that due to start of new school season there was a severe shortage of paper in the domestic market and local paper mills were increasing rates.

Chairman APGAI Aziz Khalid said that paper merchants and graphic printers were facing a severe shortage of paper, while the local producers had increased the prices by over 200 percent pushing the printing and packaging industry towards collapse.

“Local mills are even unable to meet the demand,” he said, adding due to the shortage of paper, printers were unable to print the school syllabus so far, which was impacting the students of Sindh and Punjab Text Book Boards.

Criticizing the policies of the government as negative, Khalid claimed over 18,000 units involved in the printing and packaging supply chain were also unable to import paper due to higher taxes on import stage.

“We have approached the Ministry of Finance, Commerce Division and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) apprising them of the problems of the paper and printing industry, but still there is no response from government side,” he mentioned.

Speaking on the occasion, former Chairman APPMA Muhammad Saleem Bikyia urged the federal government to reduce the taxes on the import of paper so they could import paper and avoid the shortage of paper in the local market.

He mentioned that the former government imposed multiple taxes on educational paper imports of which its import was very costly, while other side the locally produced paper was very low quality as well as unable to meet demand.

Speakers said that federal government had unfairly imposed 10 percent Regulatory Duty (RD) in uncoated wood free paper (HS Code 4802) in year budget 2021-22 despite of facts that 11 percent to 39 percent Anti-Dumping Duty was already exists. Lawfully, Regulatory Duty (RD) could not be enforced when Anti-Dumping Duty already existed, they added.

They urged the FBR for reducing the duty on the import of paper and said that with the move government would earn more revenue on import stage.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022