New Delhi: The pandemic coronavirus has hit the Indian economy very hard and the country will take a substantial amount of time to recover from the jolt. However, it is the media industry, particularly the print media which is struggling to keep going amongst the outbreak of the deadly virus.
The Indian Newspaper Society (INS) has already written to the Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry (I&B) seeking sops and assistance to keep the print media industry afloat.
Like it has done before, INS has repeated its demand for a two-year tax holiday, removal of import duty on newsprint and a 50 per cent increase in DAVP advertisement rates. The INS has said that if these measures are not implemented the newspaper industry will certainly collapse.
INS in its letter to the I&B Ministry has pointed out unlike other essential commodities like food, groceries and milk where consumers pay the full cost while procuring the items, subscriptions contribute only a fraction of the cost required to produce a newspaper. The industry is largely dependent on advertisements which in the last couple of months have decreased considerably.
“Many small and medium newspapers have already suspended publishing and other newspapers are facing serious challenges and if they collapse it is bound to affect the domestic newsprint manufacturing industry too. Such a situation will have a ripple effect, thus affecting a large number of employees, their families as well as allied industries, printing presses, distribution mechanism, newspaper vendor and delivery boys,” the INS letter to I&B secretary Ravi Mittal, said.
“Newspapers have cut down their pages to unprecedented levels with many merging weekend supplements into main edition. Despite these measures, newspapers are losing money every day,” the letter further stated.
With the lockdown to continue till May 3, the losses will certainly increase for the newspaper industry unless some drastic steps are taken and in the process hurt a large number of people involved in it. To get some the relief the INS has asked the Union government to remove five per cent customs duty on newsprint. INS has also asked the government to settle all outstanding advertisement bills immediately and to instruct state governments to do the same. The INS has also requested the government to implement 50% increase in DAVP rates and also for a 100 per cent rise in budget spend for print media.
Agencies