Journalist leaders on Sunday demanded withdrawal of the budgetary provision for tax to be imposed on the import of newsprints.
A delegation of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) and Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ) placed the demand in a meeting with Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu at his office at the Secretariat.
BFUJ President Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, Secretary General Abdul Jalil Bhuiyan and DUJ President Omar Faruq led the delegation.
Emerging from the meeting, Hasanul Haq Inu told reporters that the delegation also demanded announcement of the new wage structure for media in line with the recommendations set out in the 8th Wage Board.
Assuring the journalist leaders, the minister said the government would announce the new wage structure for journalists within June 30.
The deadline for implementing the 8th wage board would not be extended anymore, he added.
The minister informed that the journalists had told him that the proposed 25% import tax from the existing 3% would turn out to be costly for the newspaper industry because they were already having to pay VAT, various other duties and insurances.
“The 25% import duty in the proposed budget for the 2013-14 fiscal would increase the cost of printing newspapers by at least 28%. That would eventually have an impact on the remuneration of the journalists,” journalist leaders told the minister in the meeting, sources said.
Earlier, the Newspapers Owners Association of Bangladesh (Noab) had also demanded the withdrawal of taxes on the import of newsprints for newspapers.
