Noab seeks PM's help to overcome crisis

Newspaper owners yesterday urged the government to increase the rate and quota of its advertisements in the press and cut import duties on newsprint to help the industry overcome its current crises.
In a statement, the Newspaper Owners' Association of Bangladesh (Noab), said the country's newspaper industry was going through various crises.
It said the cost for printing had been increasing. Newsprint, the key material for publishing daily newspapers, was being imported at higher prices.
The industry had been going through tough times, said Noab, as there were various duties and taxes imposed on imported newsprint.
The government had held out the assurance that it would increase the rate and quota of its advertisements in newspapers, if the seventh wage board was implemented. But the assurance had not yet been implemented, mentioned the statement.
It added that importers now paid 18 percent duties to import newsprint. A tonne of newsprint has been costing about $700 for the last two years. The printing cost is also rising due to use of generators owing to power shortage.
The import cost of newsprint has also gone up in the last one year due to depreciation in the local currency by Tk 12 against the US dollar, said Mahbubul Alam, president of Noab.
He said the association had met the prime minister, finance minister, information minister and information secretary on various occasions and raised the problems the industry was faced with.
"Showing a positive attitude, everyone said they would take necessary measures. But with great sorrow, we have noticed that the budget of the current fiscal year did not reflect those assurances. Rather, everything has remained the same, which will harm everyone involved with the industry," he noted.
Mahbubul Alam urged all, including the prime minister, to take immediate steps to increase the rate and quota of government advertisements in the press and cut import duties on newsprint to help the industry overcome its current crises.
About the recently constituted eighth wage board, he said Noab had always shown a positive attitude to the legitimate demands of journalists, employees and workers of the industry.