Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Monday gave hints to consider NOAB demand for slashing newsprint import duty. Talking to reporters after a meeting with a delegation of the members of Newspaper Owner’s Association of Bangladesh (NOAB) at his office, Muhith said that he had listened to their demands that includes withdrawal of the budget proposal for enhancing import duty on newsprint. “I do not want to covey our decision now but it is in the process,” he said adding “There is time to consider their demand.”
The NOAB in a statement on June 8 demanded withdrawal of the budgetary proposal for raising import duty on newsprint and urged Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Finance Minister AMA Muhith to take necessary steps in this regard.
Talking to the reporters after the meeting, NOAB president and publisher and editor of The Independent Mahbubul Alam said the finance minister gave a patient hearing to their demands that include withdrawal of budgetary proposal to raise import duty on newsprint.
“The import duty has been raised to 25 per cent from existing 3 per cent in the budget proposal,” Alam pointed out.
We urged him to reduce the import duty on newsprint, NOAB president said.
Editor of The Daily Shamokal Golam Sarwar said “we hope the finance minister will take effective initiatives to save the newspaper industry.”
We have provided him a number of documents relating newspaper industries, he noted.
Editor of The Daily Star, Mahfuz Anam said if the budgetery proposal for enhancing the import duty on newsprint for the newspaper industry is not withdrawn, no newspaper industry would survive.
Responding to a question later Muhith said, the government will send its reply to the World Bank external expert panel’s final probe report on Padma Multi Purpose Bridge Project (PMB) scam by this week after getting the feedback from the Anti Corruption Commission.
He also said that the reply of the WB report would be published in media soon.
“I will also urge the WB to publish our reply in their website along with their report,” he said.
-With The Independent input
