The New Nation - Internet Edition

The Government has issued gazette notification of the 7th Newspaper Wage Board Award recommending the enhancement of salary, house rent allowance and other benefits. Recommendations made by the Wage Board also include the constitution of a body for welfare of journalists, workers and employees; introduction of letters of appointment and service books while making recruitment, formation of a committee to monitor implementation of the award, and refusal of duty-free newsprint import by those papers which would not implement the award.

The recommendations have been made within a span of just two months which cannot be taken as adequate to complete such an important work. The notification has acknowledged that due to time constraints discussion that was needed to have with owners, journalists, workers and employees to make realistic recommendations was not possible. Due to the same reason the board also could not expand its area of work and thus could not have elaborate exchange of opinion with newspaper executives, journalists, workers and employees both in and outside Dhaka, and failed to review the situation on the ground to recommend an award that is implementable.

One cannot assume that the framers of the wage board award are unaware of the economic stagnancy in the country and the condition of the newspaper industry along with other industries. The members of the board are supposed to know how many newspapers can regularly pay salary of journalists and employees, and bear the printing costs of papers. They also had before them the viewpoints of newspaper owners about acute financial crisis faced by the newspaper industry. But these things were not taken into consideration. Without financial solvency it's not possible to bring out newspapers by keeping journalist-employees unhappy. Owners are eager to evaluate the labour and merit of journalist-employees very much in the interest of newspapers. But mere good intentions are not adequate to get this done. It requires the ability to invest money.

The case of papers relying on government grants and NGO support is different, because they don't have to depend on newspaper income to pay salary-benefits of journalists and employees. Such dependence on outside support again cannot be welcome for independent and responsible journalism. Those who want to see newspapers as the media in the service of the country and the people would naturally side with self-reliant newspapers. But newsprint price has emerged as the main obstacle to sustainable newspapers. In last December newsprint price per ton was Taka 42,350 which together with VAT cost Taka 51 thousand. The cost has now escalated to Taka 66 thousand and would further go up to Taka 84 thousand per ton in next December, it is feared. This would emerge as a threat to the existence of the newspaper industry. Against this backdrop, a 90-per cent enhancement of salary-benefits has been recommended. Due to abnormal increase of newsprint prices last year the production cost of a 20-page paper comes to Taka 21 a copy. But from sales at the rate of Taka 8 a copy a paper earns only Taka 4.72 after meeting agent-commission. Newspapers depend on advertisement revenue to meet this huge deficit. But the rate of government advertisement is only Taka 204 a column inch which after tax deduction comes to Taka 185. Then there is delay in the payment of advertisement bills. The rate is so low that established papers show the least interest to print government advertisements. It is meaningless to increase the rate of government advertisement without increasing its volume in the budget. Private advertisement, on which newspapers mainly depend, has seriously fallen due to countrywide economic recession.

Employers or the companies have been asked in the wage board award to pay the income tax of employees, although there is a verdict of the High Court against this. According to the verdict, which has been ignored, income tax cannot form part of anybody's salary. Even government employees have to pay their own income tax. No respect has been shown to the court verdict even though the chairman of the wage board was a judge.

The problems in the industry would further deepen if newspapers that do not have the ability to implement the award are denied the opportunity of importing duty-free newsprint. If this is the case, does the government want the closure of most newspapers in the interest of a handful of others? The expenses of newspapers would increase from 10 lakh to 25 lakh Taka a month only for implementation of the wage board award.

Since the government has announced the award showing sympathy to journalist-employees by ignoring the economic realities, it should also take the responsibility of empowering the newspapers to have the financial power to implement the same. Implementation of the award in the government-controlled Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha and another two to four newspapers would not do. The information ministry itself knows how many newspapers have implemented the 40 per cent dearness allowance under the sixth wage board ordered last year. It would not be fair to create economic crisis for the majority of journalists with a view to giving enhanced salary-benefits to a minority of them. It is only fair that the government takes realistic steps for implementation of the 7th wage board award. The government should also help increase the economic base of the newspapers so that all journalist-employees get the benefits. Otherwise, people might ponder whether some interest groups out to create crises are succeeding to manipulate advisers.