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Newspaper Owners' Association of Bangladesh (Noab) on Thursday sought the cooperation of FBCCI for the development of the newspaper industry and to solve various issues.
They made the request at a meeting with FBCCI president Sheikh Fazle Fahim and leaders of the organisation, the FBCCI said in a press release
During this time, Noab's president and editor-cum-publisher of Prothom-Alo Matiur Rahman said that the newspaper industry is going through a difficult time more than ever in the past.
Despite being a service industry, it has a corporate tax rate of 35 per cent, which is a major obstacle to the industry's progress, he said.
Under the circumstances, the industry is struggling to survive in this situation. Most newspapers have to run subsidies to survive in this state, according to Rahman.
The ninth wage board announced by the government was also discussed during the meeting held at the FBCCI office in Dhaka city.
The Noab president said the newspaper industry was under pressure due to the implementation of the new wage board.
He called for increasing the income of the industry, reducing corporate tax, decreasing taxation by 10 per cent and to increase opportunities for Noab’s communication with the government.
In respect of the Noab statement, Fahim said that if the owners of the newspaper industry have any distance with the government, this is outside of the FBCCI's mandate.
Since there was no involvement of FBCCI from the beginning of the wage board implementation process, this issue can be evaluated, he said.
However, issues related to the economic interests of the industry, such as the value chain structure, can be reviewed jointly with Nawab, the FBCCI president said.
FBCCI vice-presidents Md Siddiqur Rahman, Hasina Newaaz and Dilip Kumar Agarwala, director Md Munir Hossain, Samakal publisher AK Azad, Daily Star editor and publisher Mahfuz Anam, Financial Express editor Shah Husain Imam, Daily Manabzamin chief editor Matiur Rahman Chowdhury, Daily Sangbad editor Altamash Kabir and Bonik Barta editor and publisher Dewan Hanif Mahmud were also present.