Paper importers and business leaders today urged the government to cut import duty for the sector by 20 percentage points to 5 per cent.

The import duty on raw materials for the printing, publication, packaging industry should be the same as the plastic industry, they said.

The leaders of different associations concerned with the sector made the call at a joint press conference held in Hotel La Vinci in Karwan Bazar of Dhaka.

The representatives from Bangladesh Local Cartoon Manufacturers' Association, Bangladesh Printing Industry Association, Bangladesh Paper Importers Association, Bangladesh Paper Merchant Association, Bangladesh Text Book Printing and Marketing Samity, Bangladesh Book Publisher and Sellers Samity, and Packaging Industries Association of Bangladesh were present there.

They said Bangladesh is mainly an import-dependent country for paper and right now they pay 15 per cent import duty, but the finance minister in his latest budget speech proposed raising the duty to 25 per cent.