Chennai, April 1 (BPNS)
The cost of Text and notebooks will become high in Tamil Nadu as printing costs will go up by 30 percent from Friday.
Speaking to BPNS, president of Coimbatore Printers Association, H. Nazar said, “ The cost of paper is increasing by the day and hence there are no options for us other than passing on this price hike to the consumers. The price hike would vary based on the paper quality and the cost of double coated paper has doubled when compared to March 2021. It was Rs 2500 for a kilogram for double coated paper in March 2021 while for the same quantity it is now Rs 5000.”
Nazar said that the prices of all raw materials have also gone up including aluminum plates as well as ink. He said that while the cost of aluminum plates has increased from Rs 700 to Rs 1000, the cost of ink has risen from Rs 2500 to Rs 3900 per kg.
Balasubramanian, former president of the Federation of Paper Traders Association of India while speaking to BPNS said, “ The paper cost is now changing on a daily basis while during earlier days it used to be revised on an annual basis before the budget presentation. After the Covid outbreak cost changed every six months but the daily change of paper rates cannot be accepted.”
The import cost of raw paper has also increased 200 times due to the shortage of containers as India imports paper from China and the USA. He said that the paper arrives in 45 days from China but from USA it takes 60 days and if there were adequate containers the volume of paper arriving would have increased leading to the necessary quantity of raw paper. This is also another reason for the increase in prices.
Domestic paper mills are also increasing the rates due to an increase in pulp price as well as that of chemicals and the rates to the suppliers are now calculated based on the date of supply instead of the date of order as fluctuating prices are leading to losses to domestic paper manufacturers also.
K. Senthilnathan, one of the biggest distributors of books in Tamil Nadu while speaking to BPNS said, “There is no choice left for us but to go for a steep hike and pass on the increase in prices of raw materials to the consumers. The price hike will be effected from April 1 onwards”.
