All Pakistan Paper Merchants Association (APPMA) has urged the government to allow paper import from India to bring down paper prices and to end hegemony of the paper manufacturers. APPMA President Mohammad Ajmal and former President Khamis Saeed Butt in a statement issued here Monday said that soon after assuming the charge of his office, Nawaz Sharif would have to look at the affairs of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) that had been ignoring the paper Merchants' proposals for the last many years.
They said that paper plays an important role for the promotion of education in country and the paper mills are unable to cater to fast increasing needs. They said that only because of unavailability of quality paper, the consumers are bound to use inferior quality paper on the one hand while on the other the millers are causing a huge loss to the exchequer through alleged under-invoicing and other wrong doings. The APPMA leaders said that paper should be placed in the list of essential items and its import through Wagah Border should be allowed because of ban on its import from India, a huge foreign exchange is being wasted. They said that Paper Merchants would extend every possible help to the PML (N) government for ensuring availability of quality paper in the country.