The CPI(M) Parliamentarian, in a recent letter to Modi, highlighted the challenges faced by the industry and said several newspapers have already cut down on the number of pages and even closed editions.

He said the industry which provided jobs to lakhs of people was suffering due to the effects of the lockdown as advertisement revenues had taken a beating and were expected to continue for a longer period.

Natarajan said the party''s MPs supported the proposals of newspapers'' body such as waiver of customs duty on newsprint, clearance of outstanding BOC dues, increased rate by 100 per cent for BOC ads, increased use of print medium for government announcements and complete tax holiday for the next two fiscals.