Tehran, Iran, May 15
Trend:
Iran is to release 10,000 tons of paper in the upcoming weeks from the customs in order to solve paper shortage, said the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Abbas Salehi.
"Iran requires 400,000 tons of paper per year. Between 6,000 to 10,000 tons of paper will be released from the customs in next one or two weeks," he said, Trend reports citing Mehr News Agency.
He noted, "The issue of paper has been discussed during recent months, as it is important for the field of culture."
"There are three paper manufacturing companies in Iran that are supposed to produce 170,000 tons altogether; however, the production of these factories was only 10,000 tons in 2017 and reached 20,000 tons in 2018", he said. "Our annual need is around 400,000 tons of papers, therefore we have to import."
According to the Minister, the foreign exchange policy to use official foreign currency rate of 42,000 rial per dollar for paper imports created tension in paper market, while the already imported papers remained at the customs due to this decision.
"Due to government negotiation and the Supreme Leader persistence on solving the issue, around 20,000 to 30,000 tons of paper are to be imported to the country. It has been approved that paper price for newspapers and other mass media will be based on official foreign currency rate to release the papers from the customs," he said.