DHAKA, Nov 29, 2022 (BSS) - Bangladesh Pustak Prokashok O Bikreta Samity, an association of book publishers and sellers, today urged the government to withdraw duty on the import of papers, protesting 'unusual' price hike of the item.

The association came up with the demand at a press conference held at Jatiya Press Club in the capital.

Reading out a written statement, Samity president Arif Hossain Choton said if duty on paper import could not be minimised in context of growing paper demand, an unstable siltation will emerge soon in paper market of the country.

He said if papers cannot be imported with soft duty or duty-free, there will be a crisis of papers ahead of the textbook distribution programme that the government takes every new year and the Amar Ekushey Book Fair. 
 
A five-point demand was put forward at the press conference. The demands included declaring paper import as duty-free, applying used papers in recycling work, making the stored papers available in market and giving incentive or subsidy to importing papers.