Business leaders, belonging to the Press and Media Standing Committee of Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), urged the authorities concerned to reduce the burden of taxes on all news outlets including newspapers, television channels and online news portals etc.
They also called upon the government to announce newspapers as an industry of mass importance.
The business leaders made the remarks while addressing a meeting organised by the standing committee held in the FBCCI office in Dhaka’s Motijheel area on Tuesday.
Chaired by Shoeb Chowdhury, chairman of the standing committee and former FBCCI Director, FBCCI President Mahbubul Alam joined the meeting virtually as the chief guest while Director-in-Charge Md. Rakibul Alam (Dipu) participated in the event in person.
President Mahbubul Alam said that the substantial role played by mass media in Bangladesh is immeasurable since the independence to the country’s present socio-economic development journey.
Media outlets have highly contributed to the advancement of business and economic progress of Bangladesh, he said.
The business leader laid emphasis on the fact that media outlets have to work very professionally and competently to deal with the challenges of days to come while approaching the goal of building up Smart Bangladesh. It is vital to ensure sustainable development of the newspaper industry.
FBCCI Senior Vice President Md. Amin Helali said that it is essential to identify the obstacles that hinder media outlets and to involve all stakeholders in this arena with the above-mentioned standing committee to overcome different drawbacks.
He stressed that necessary policy amendments need to be brought about through negotiating the relevant issues with the ministry concerned.
Shoeb Chowdhury said, “Media houses have to survive like all other industries by means of doing business. So, certain facilities and privileges need to be provided to media houses. Taxes imposed on papers, inks, printing appliances need to be reduced. The existing taxes on the television channels’ bandwidth should be brought down too.”
He said that there should be special allotment in the supplementary budget for press and media.
Director-in-Charge Rakibul said that a seminar will be soon organised with the top brass of Information and Broadcasting Ministry and Commerce Ministry and other stakeholders and a strategic paper will be prepared for this purpose.
Members of the standing committee exchanged views on facilitating loan disbursement for media workers, ensuring journalists’ remunerations and bonuses, cooperation from different departments and government offices to simplify and speed up the procurement of supplements and advertisements, rapid clearance of pending bills from government organizations and some other points. The standing committee members also said that it is required to arrange meetings between FBCCI leaders and editors, owners, journalists associated with television channels and newspapers every three months.
Simultaneously the discussants placed importance on inspiring journalists to publish objective and authentic reports and to abstain from unethical journalism.
The meeting was also attended, among others, by the Prime Minister’s former Press Secretary AKM Shameem Chowdhuri, LGRD Ministry’s Board of Governors member Borhan Uddin Ahmed, FBCCI director Haji Harun Ur Rashid, Managing Director of Cute Cosmetics Limited Kazi Rajib Ahmed, Head of FBCCI International Affairs Wing Jafar Iqbal NDC, committee co-chairman Akkas Mahmud, Mohammad Nizam Uddin Jitu, Ejaz Mohammad and Tawhida Sultana.