The Finance ministry has asked the National Board of Revenue for taking steps to reduce duty on import of newsprint for newspaper industry by 50 per cent to facilitate the industry in implementing 8th wage board award, officials of the ministry said.
They said that the ministry asked the revenue board to take initiative to reduce the import duty for newsprint to 5 per cent from the existing 10 per cent in line with proposal of the information ministry.
In this regard, Internal Resource Division of the
ministry has recently sent a letter to the NBR along with information ministry’s proposal.
In the fiscal year 2013-14, the government increased duty on newsprint import to 10 per cent from 3 per cent.
However, the revenue board proposed to increase the duty at 25 per cent along with 5 per cent supplementary duty.
Currently, newspaper and periodicals owners have to pay a total of 30 per cent duties including 10 per cent import duty, 15 per cent value-added tax and 5 per cent advance income tax for per tonne of imported newsprint for the industry.
Earlier on September 11, the government announced eighth wage board award by raising the wages of journalists and other media employees by 75 per cent following the recommendations of the Wage Board and the cabinet committee formed to review the recommendations of the Wage Board.
Newspaper owners have been urging the government for withdrawal of import duty to facilitate them in implementation of the new wages. Otherwise, higher duty in newsprint import will increase publication cost of newspapers and periodicals that would lead the industry to a crisis.
After discussions with the owners, the cabinet committee, formed by the cabinet in early August, headed by cultural minister Abul Kalam Azad, recommended the information ministry for initiating measures so that the NBR reduces the duty to 5 per cent which would help the industry to implement the new wage structure, finance ministry officials said.
An NBR official said that now the revenue board will take a decision in this regard.
A cabinet committee made the recommendation and several ministries are involved with the issue. So the revenue board may consider the proposal positively after getting approval from the finance minister, he said.
-With New Age input
