Remove 10% customs on newsprint: INS to govt

The Executive Committee of the Indian Newspaper Society at its emergency meeting urged the Union government to withdraw the 10% customs duty imposed on newsprint, uncoated paper used for printing of newspapers and lightweight coated papers used for magazines.

The duty was announced by Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman during the budget speech on July 5.

In a statement issued on Friday, the society pointed out that the total consumption of standard newsprint in India is 2.5 mn tons and the indigenous mills have a capacity of 1.0 mn tons. “It appears that the Indian newsprint manufacturers have misrepresented to the government that they are in a position to meet the entire requirements,” it said.

Domestic manufacturers of newsprint had welcomed the move to impose duty, pointing out how it would help indigenous production.

Challenging that view, the INS said; “Last year, there was severe shortage of newsprint world-wide but the Indian industry was able to export only 12,726 tons of newsprint, which shows that there was no idle capacity available in India and the newsprint capacity showcased by the local manufacturers to the government is fallacious.”

It also pointed out that the quality of indigenously produced newsprint is considerably inferior to the imported newsprint, which restricts its usage on modern printing presses. “The tearing of paper reels of domestic newsprint on presses is more than three times as compared to imported. This leads to excessive wastage and loss of productivity,” it said.

The society also claimed that the reliability of supplies from domestic mills is uncertain as many of these are facing show-cause notices from Central Pollution Board and there is no domestic capacity for uncoated (glazed) and lightweight coated newsprint.

“Publishers of newspapers and magazines are already reeling under severe financial pressure due to many factors like lower advertisement revenues, higher costs and digital onslaught from technological giants. Small and medium newspapers will go into deeper losses and many may be forced to shut down due to this imposition,” the INS said.

First Published: Jul 27, 2019 14:07 IST