WB paper trade urges wasteland afforestation

Calcutta Paper Traders Association (CPTA) will urge the state government to bring areas officially classified as wastelands under wood plantation to generate raw materials for revival of the paper industry in West Bengal. The state's paper industry is one of the oldest in the country.

CPTA president K K Kothari, while addressing the members in the 89th annual general meeting of the association, stressed the need of enhancing the supply of virgin fibre for producing quality paper.

Kothari along with the chairman of Supreme Paper Mill, Nanadlal Todi, blamed the state government for high rate of sales tax prevailing in West Bengal compared to other paper producing states like Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Assam.

The sales tax on paper in West Bengal was 9.2 per cent, which was 4-5 per cent higher than the tax in Punjab, UP and Assam.

Kothari said West Bengal could bring back the lost glory in paper industry through a modern proactive social forestry policy.

"I would like to bring to notice that if paper mills stop producing paper from virgin fibre, we will not have any fibre left for recycling within six to eight months, since fibres can be recycled only up to a certain number of cycles. We will not be able to supply the demand of paper in future without a proper social forestry," he said.

Kothari argued that there were certain grades of paper, specially those used for food and pharma packaging, which required use of virgin fibre to avoid contamination of the packaged product.

Incidentally, packaging sector accounted for 55 per cent of the overall domestic paper consumption.

He criticised policies of both state and union government by saying the government were only encouraging import of paper at the expense of the domestic industry.

"The multiplicity of tax structure and high rate of sales tax in West Bengal is making our life even more difficult," Kothari added.

Todi joined him by saying that in some cases excise duty was higher than the import duty. "Paper imported from a neighbouring countries is harming indigenous producers like us," he added.