Bangladesh Pustak Prokashok O Bikreta Samity, an association of book publishers and sellers, has urged the government to withdraw duty on the import of papers, protesting the 'unusual' price hike of the item.
The association came up with the demand at a press conference held at Jatiya Press Club in Dhaka on Tuesday.
Reading out a written statement, Samity president Arif Hossain Choton said if the duty on paper import could not be minimised in the context of growing paper demand, unstable siltation will emerge soon in the paper market of the country, reports BSS.
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 demands included declaring paper import as duty-free, applying used papers in recycling work, making the stored papers available in the market and giving incentives or subsidies to importing papers.