Refusing demands for rollback of import duty on the paper used for printing newspapers, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that 10 percent customs duty on imported newsprint was a move to provide a level playing field for domestic manufacturers. She noted that there is a capacity in this country to produce newsprint, but unfortunately, domestic newsprint manufacturers are not able to find buyers because most of the newsprint is imported.
Sitharaman has stated that in the previous few months, there has been a drastic fall in price overseas from $700 per tonne to $500 per tonne. She said that kind of fall in global newsprint prices has affected the Indian manufacturers so badly that they are not able to find takers for their product. She also pointed out that the duty would adversely impact small newspapers at a time when advertising revenue was also depleting. Therefore, she said “if we are talking of Make in India but allowing indirectly to import, it does not make sense at all. I am sure the member appreciate this point that when we are trying to make Indian industry survive this kind of onslaught, this is inevitable.
Meanwhile, the total consumption of newsprint in India is estimated at 2.5-million tonnes per annum and the manufacturing capacity of the domestic industry is only 1-million tonnes. Also, there are no domestic manufacturers of uncoated and lightweight coated paper.