Price hike Newspaper industry in crisis : NOAB
04 December 2022
News Desk :
Newspaper Owners' Association of Bangladesh (NOAB) has expressed deep concern about the critical condition of the newspaper industry due to the increase in the prices of various essential and imported and domestic raw materials.
In a most recent meeting of the Noab, attendees at the meeting expressed apprehension about the future of newspapers, according to a media statement issued on Saturday.
NOAB Executive Committee President AK Azad discussed the current situation of the industry and sought government intervention in this regard.
The major reason of the current dire situation of newspaper industry, which is regarded as a service industry, is caused due to the gap between manufacturing costs and selling prices, the statement said.
It stated that the current war in Eastern Europe has increased the price required for newspapers along with various other products to such an extent that this service industry has collapsed.
A few days ago, the price of newspapers was increased, but it did not improve the situation.
An average of Tk22 is spent on making a copy of a newspaper while it is sold at around Tk12.
Around 35% of the cost of selling the newspaper is given to the hawkers. The rest of the deficit is tried to be met from advertising.
However, in the case of the vast majority of newspapers, it is not possible to cover this difference in production cost and selling price.
At the same time, amid the pandemic, the newspaper industry did not receive any kind of incentives. Rather, the burden of various taxes has aggravated the situation.
In addition, newspapers owe about Tk100 crore day by day due to various government agencies for advertisements. The dues were not paid despite several requests.
Considering the overall situation, Noab urged the government to take the responsibility of protecting this fragile industry, added the statement.
