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Kolkata , Sept. 20

CAPTAINS of the domestic paper industry and trade feel that the WTO-bound 20 per cent import duty on paper and products may not pose a threat to the industry vis-à-vis imports provided it is allowed to play in a level-playing field.

Echoing this view, the Deputy Managing Director of Ballarpur Industries Ltd (BILT), said here on Saturday that the domestic paper mills should be allowed to enter into captive plantation in the degraded forest and waste land so that it can grow adequate quantity of raw material to meet their growing demand for such raw material.

Addressing the inaugural session of the three-day conference of the Federation of Paper Traders Association of India (FPTA), Mr Vederah said the gap between demand and supply was still being bridged by enhancing production from the industry's existing installed capacity. But this could not be met in future from indigenous sources unless new capacities were created. However, he said that the capacity creation hinged on the availability of raw material.

According to him, about 64,000 hectares of degraded forest and wasteland were available in the country. A portion of such land could be used for plantation purposes, and in the process, a huge number of jobs could be created. In addition, the availability of fire wood could be increased and the raw material problem of paper industry could be solved.

He said that the present demand for paper and paper products in the country, including about 4.5 lakh tonnes of newsprint, would be about 5.2 million tonnes against the domestic production capacity of about 4.7 million tonnes. "We import largely newsprint barring about 50,000 tonnes of specialty paper. But the imports may be more in the foreseeable future unless raw material problems are solved for the industry to grow," he cautioned.

However, FPTA has begun its three-day conference with the objective of looking into the competitiveness of the domestic paper industry and trade. The conference has plans to highlight the changes in the paper industry and the opportunities and avenues for its growth. The challenges from the plastic industry and the cheap imports are major points that would be pondered upon.

The agenda of the conference is also to look into the new liberalised scenario that has led the paper industry to think of more investment for better capacity, improvement of quality and being more consumer-oriented.

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