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.