Goods and Service Tax to take centrestage at FPTAI from Aug 15

COIMBATORE: Impact of Goods and Service Tax ( GST) on paper trade will be a major issue that would come up for discussion at the 53rd Annual General Meeting and Conference of Federation of Paper Traders Association of India (FPTAI), beginning from August 15.

The proposed GST is expected to increase tax on paper trade from the present 13 per cent to 18 per cent, including CST, Excise Duty and VAT, thus adversely affecting the profit margin for the traders, FPTAI president-elect C Balasubramanian told PTI here.

Nearly 600 delegates from across India were expected to participate in this three-day conference, he said.

Other major issue to be discussed was the need to take steps to increase per capita consumption of paper in India, which was 11 kg, compared to 260 kg in the USA and European Union, he said.

Stating that the total consumption of paper in India was 12 million tonnes per year, including news print and writing paper, Balasubramanian said India produced 11 million tonnes and imported over one million tonnes.

Commenting on market for paper in India, he said that demand for paper for packaging was witnessing a growth of 13 per cent year-on-year, while for photocopy by four per cent.

The conference will be inaugurated by A Velliangiri, Deputy Managing Director, Tamil Nadu News Print and Paper Ltd.