KATHMANDU: The eco-friendly Lokta paper that is categorised as one of the top export commodities is on its way to add more fashion trends and colours along with its participation in the “Paper World Fair 2010”. 

During a workshop on preparation for the Paper World Fair 2010, Nepalokta Cooperative chief executive officer Ram Raj Acharya informed about the Nepalokta participation in the fair from January 30 to February 2 to enhance its brand promotion. The fair is the world’s leading trade fair for paper offices supplies and stationery sector. It will be held in Frankfurt, Germany. This year around six exhibitors from Nepal will participate in the fair. The main aim of participating in the fair is to cater to new needs, showcase new ideas, establish trade relations, share industry developments and bring together traders and buyers.

The products of Nepal Handmade Paper Association are gift articles, albums, dairies, writing paper/sets, calligraphy sets, greeting cards and wrapping papers. “The major theme for handmade paper products is that they are handcrafted, and eco-friendly,” said Govinda Pandey, acting project manager of Switch Asia. According to Pandey, the four-year-long project is supporting skill development of rural people in 22 districts of Nepal. The project is working as a mediator for Lokta paper to reach all levels of exporters and enter the European market.

 KARACHI: The prices of paper printing products including books and copies in the country surged by around 40 percent due to increase in regulatory duty on imports which has been raised by around 36 percent.

“After imposition of regulatory duty, the total quantum of duties increased to Rs 34,000 per tonne from 25,000 per tonne for commercial importers”, chairman All Pakistan Paper Merchant Association (APPMA), Muhammad Saleem Memon said Wednesday.

He said in 2006-07, dollar was at Rs 60 and duty on paper was Rs 17,000 per tonne, now in 2009 dollar increased to Rs 84 and imposition of regulatory duty comes to Rs 25,000 per tonne.

He said that after imposition of regulatory duty, local paper mills are also readjusting their prices as well as ex-mills prices have resulted in increasing cost of packaging material.

He said due to high rate duties, import of paper has registered a decline from 64,000 tonnes per annum to 17,000 tonnes in 2009, besides government facing a loss of Rs 12 billion in revenue collection.

He said the local paper mills have an advantage of Rs 30,000 per tonne on imports as industrial importers.

He urged President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to withdraw regulatory duty imposed on paper to make books and copies affordable for students.

Memon said that the printing and packaging industry is facing serious crises and due to higher cost of production, many printing units go out of business thus rendering a large number of people jobless. Thus, many workers of producers of paper, paper notebooks, exercise books, file folders, albums, diaries, paper bags, have to find new jobs.

Senior member of APPMA, Rauf Ansari said, “increase in the prices of paper and paperboard will affect the local price of notebooks, copies, textbooks and office stationery.” The commercial importers were paying minimum 25 percent more on imports, now actual cost has been increased to 33 percent, he added.

He said under custom tariff, paper is treated as finished goods under section (X) chapter 48 of Pakistan Customs Tariff, at high customs duty slab, at the rate of 20 percent to 25 percent, while in Customs Policy, raw material is at 10 percent or zero rate duty slab.

He said the sales tax increased the import cost by around Rs 8 per kg on all kinds of paper.

He said, “We import paper and duplex box paper from Indonesia, China, Finland, UK, Belgium and other countries to meet our domestic requirements, while local mills cater to 65 percent of our requirements”.

Ansari said around 60 percent imported material is used for making office stationery and high-grade paper products and imported cardboards cater around 35 percent of our needs.

He added that around 28 percent imported material is used for making notebooks and high quality paperbacks books while more than 60 percent local paper is used in making secondary and higher secondary school books.

The regulatory duty on coated board to the tune of 15 percent imposed by the government was done in order to provide some relief to the manufacturing sector, he added.

He said the international cost of finished paper, coated and uncoated paper comes around $ 940 per tonne and $ 650 per tonne respectively.

The domestic rise in the price is seen at Rs 3,500 per tonne to Rs 70,000 per tonne on paper used for school books and register etc, Rs 3,500 per tonne to Rs 70,000 per tonne on fine paper used for photography and notebooks and Rs 3,100 per tonne to Rs 52,000 per tonne on paper used for school books etc, he added.

Similarly around Rs 3,400 per tonne to Rs 57,000 per tonne increased in Duplex box paper. The price of lower quality and normal paper increased from Rs 48,500 to Rs 58,000 per tonne, which is used in the production of copies and other items.

The price of fine quality paper used in different value-added products has increased to Rs 65,000 from Rs 58,000 per tonne.

The surge in the basic raw material of books and copies would definitely increase the prices of these items in the academic session, which will restart in mid-August in Sindh and mid-September in Punjab.

 Four trade fairs, attracting more than 2,500 exhibitors and offering a wide range of sourcing opportunities in toys and games, baby products, stationery and licensing, opened Monday at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center (HKCEC).

The 36th Toys&Games Fair is the largest event of its kind in Asia and the second-biggest in the world. About 2,000 exhibitors from 38 countries and regions took part in this year's event.

Catering to emerging trends in the industry, the fair featured a testing and certification service zone, offering solutions to guarantee safe and non-toxic toys. A number of seminars on toy- safety will also be organized during the fair.

A spin-off from the toy fair, the Hong Kong Baby Products Fair was held for the first time responding to the growing worldwide demand for baby product and accessories. The event presented over 300 exhibitors from 16 countries and regions.

The Hong Kong International Stationery Fair included more than 240 exhibitors from 10 nations and regions. To celebrate its 10th anniversary, the fair introduced a Hong Kong Stationary Award for environmental friendly products and the winners were on display at the venue. Exhibitors of stationery products like pen and pencil, pencil case, paper, notebooks and file folders, water color pens, stationery set, sharpeners, erasers, photo albums, gift bags, modeling clay, plastilina all have high expectation for the show.

Designed to reflect importance of licensing to the toys and games industry, the Hong Kong International Licensing Show drew some 140 exhibitors representing more than 300 properties and brands, including Warner Bros., Dreamworks and Doraemon.

The four combined events were organized by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. They will last till January 14 except the Licensing show, which will end a day earlier.