There is a huge shortage of paper in Pakistan. The paper association of the country has said that due to the paper crisis in the country, books will not be available to the students in the new academic year starting from August 2022. The economic crisis, rising inflation, heavy taxes have been imposed for the paper crisis. Because of the monopoly on imported paper and by the local paper industries.
This means that the education sector will be affected. Many students are unable to get textbooks. Moreover, this comes at a time when schools and colleges in Pakistan are preparing for the new academic session. The Publishers and Booksellers Association of Pakistan said that school boards in Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will not be able to print new textbooks for the upcoming academic year and textbooks will not be made available to lakhs of students.
Besides, non-availability of textbooks will affect the middle class students. Educational institutions in the country can exploit the parents of students and force them to pay huge amounts to buy books.
What happened because of the lack of paper?
There are about 18,000 businesses involved in printing and packaging in Pakistan. These companies and their supply chain management are now facing the brunt of the wrong policies of the government. Taxes have been imposed and along with rising inflation there is a paper crunch in the country. Publishers have warned that there will be a severe shortage of textbooks this year if prices for locally produced paper are not fixed.
Publishers are facing shortage of imported paper. Heavy tax has been imposed on this by the government. Aziz Khalid, president of the Publishers and Booksellers Association, said paper importers are suffering due to heavy taxes and local paper mills are unable to produce enough paper to meet the demand.
paper price not fixed
Addressing a press conference, Dr. Kaiser Bengali, Chief Economist of Pakistan has said that Due to the severe crisis of paper in the country, prices increased “Sky”. It is currently very expensive and publishers are unable to set the prices of the books.
Khalid has said that if the paper prices are not fixed then the booksellers will not be able to provide the text books to the students. Local paper makers are “continuously raising prices. Presently, the price of local paper has increased by over 200 per cent, while its quality is also substandard compared to foreign-made paper,” he told news agency IANS.
“Since January, an increase of Rs 100 per kg of local paper has been observed. The current situation is pushing the printing and packaging industries towards collapse,” said Khalid, adding that every week the price of local paper has gone up by Rs 5 to Rs 8 per kg. The government has not taken “any concrete” step in this regard.
What are the demands of Printing Press?
The Publishers and Booksellers Association has demanded that the government reduce the tax and duty on paper imports. “By raising the prices of locally manufactured low quality paper and taxing good quality imported paper, the government is preventing Pakistan from entering the multi-billion dollar export market,” Khalid said.
What will happen next?
ANI told.
Writing for local media outlet Duniya Daily, Ayaz Amir said, “We have seen the rules of Ayub Khan (former President of Pakistan), Yahya Khan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. We have seen the governments of dictators. And they all had one thing in common, take loans to solve problems and then take more loans to pay off past debts.
On the other hand, China has struck a tough deal with Pakistan when it comes to making payments on its loans and other investments in Pakistan. In the financial year 2021-2022, Pakistan paid about USD 150 million as interest to China for accessing the USD 4.5 billion Chinese trade finance facility. In the financial year 2019-2020, Pakistan paid USD 120 million as interest on a loan of USD 3 billion.
Not only has Pakistan’s economic crisis been mishandled by successive governments, it has taken extensive loans from China, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The country has also taken 13 loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 30 years, the news agency reported.
— IANS. with inputs
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