The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

Newspaper Owners' Association of Bangladesh (NOAB) has urged the government to increase its advertisement budget by at least four times to meet the additional cost of the newly increased rate of its advertisement.

The NOAB leaders, at a general meeting held on Saturday, thanked the government for increasing its advertisement rate and those of autonomous bodies but pointed out that this increase was meaningless because government's allocation for advertisement had not been increased.

NOAB also urged the government to reduce VAT on imported newsprint in view of abnormal hike of newsprint price.

The meeting expressed deep concern over the crisis being faced by the newspaper industry due to rising production cost. The 7th Wage Board Award announced recently has also put an additional financial burden on the newspapers at a time when the overall volume of advertisement in the print media has declined, it said.

While NOAB members expressed themselves in favour of implementing the Wage Board Award to journalist and other employees of the industry, it termed the conditionally imposed by the Information Ministry for implementing the new advertisement rate unfair.

The provision for filling in form to gain eligibility for the increase rate should therefore be withdrawn forthwith.

NOAB also demanded representation in the Wage Board implementation committee.