Business | General
Production cost rise hits Indian paper industry
The Indian paper industry is faced with rising manufacturing costs and increasing tax-related complexities, dealers said at an ongoing national conference that began here on Saturday.
- IANS
- Published: 23:49 July 27, 2008
Agra: The Indian paper industry is faced with rising manufacturing costs and increasing tax-related complexities, dealers said at an ongoing national conference that began here on Saturday.
Manufacturing costs had gone up and paper mills were logging huge losses for the past one year, packaging paper manufacturer Khatema Fibres chairman RC Rastogi said at the three-day conference, convened by the Federation of Paper Traders' Associations of India (FPTA).
"Not only raw material costs, but also shipping costs, shortage of containers and power supply are adversely affecting the (paper) manufacturing sector," he said.
Rastogi warned that the crisis would deepen following a shortage of bagasse that is being increasingly used to generate power. Another ingredient for paper manufacturing, paddy husk, is also being diverted to the energy sector for firing boilers.
More than 600 dealers from across India are participating at the conference that ends today.
Gap
FPTA president Arvind Sharma said increasing newsprint prices were goading paper mills to switch over to newsprint production. The price rise, he said, was on account of a demand-supply gap: consumption has gone up to 2 million tonnes annually against a production of 1.2 million tonnes, with the shortage being met through imports.
Paper dealers said they were particularly foxed by the anomalies in the tax structure and rates.
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