30 thousand people have been unemployed in the printing industries for the last 10 years

In an interview with ILNA reporter, announcing his meeting with Seyed Mehdi Mghaddessi, the Member of Parliament Commission of Industries, Gholamreza Shoja (the General Manager of the Cooperative of Lithographers and the representative of printing industries throughout the country apart from Tehran, said, "I, as representative of printing industries throughout the country, have  had a meeting with Seyed Mehdi Mghaddessi, the member of Parliament Commission of Industries and the People's representative of Arak, today. In the meeting which was coordinated by the Arak Union of Printers, the importance of status of printing Industry was discussed in today's world, especially in the developed countries of the first world such as the ones in Europe and the North America and the developing countries such as Korea and Malaysia, and the difference of this status with that in our country."

He continued, "Another issue that I have discussed with the parliament member was the lack of attention of Guild Chamber to the trade unions and guild cooperatives, especially the printing unions in other cities are not supported at all, and there is not an appropriate place for the unions of other cities in the Guild Chamber."

This active professional of printing industry considered the need for high investment in the industry as one of the basic problems of the industry activist and said, "Nowadays, if we want to modernize one 4 sheet fed offset printing machine, we will need an investment of around 10 million Tomans. In the field of large-scale printing and packaging industries, the amounts of investment are higher which form a principle problem in the field. At present, there are 10000 small and medium sized printing workshops in the country in which 100 thousand people are working, but unfortunately approximately 30 thousand people working in the field of printing have been redundant and unemployed due to the wrong policies of the 10th Cabinet and lack of adequate attention of the 11th Cabinet for the last 10 years. If we intend to provide occupations, we should note that maintaining the existing employments has far less costs than creating new job opportunities."

Shoja emphasized, "One of the main problems is the issue of tax about which I discussed with this Member of Parliament Commission of Industries as the printing professionals' concerns. I told him that 90% of the paper used domestically was in the field of writing paper and newspaper, and the dro‌p in the amount of paper consumption indicates the decline in the activities of printing houses. Unfortunately, regarding the tax, the tens of tax sublevels are implemented in a personal manner because while the paper as well as publication is exempted from tax, the tax office regard books as goods in printing houses and impose tax on them. As a result, the printing houses receive the extra costs from publishers that is the exemption of publishers are automatically overlooked."

The representative of printing industries of the country apart from Tehran noted, "The tax problem on printing houses is no longer a tax pressure and has turned into tax oppression. In the meeting with Mr. Moghaddessi, I submitted him four types of tax offenses with documentation. For example, the tax on a printing house using an old machine belonged to World War II with a total capital of less than 50 million Tomans has been calculated 500 million Tomans while three families are making a living in the printing house. I again drew his attention to the fact that the profit of paper is less than 1% and we have such a low margin of profit in printing industry, so the value added tax should be reduced from 9 % to 3% for us. In fact, the printing house should only pay the tax on its 1% profit of printing books. Another issue which was discussed with the people's representative was the pursuit of the letter of 24 printing unions of the country in last March which referred to the Article 2 paragraph 16 and asked for the determination of a trustee of printing industry in the Ministries of Industry and Islamic Guidance and Culture."

He emphasized, "The demand for more attention to and support for the country's cooperatives, especially those in the field of printing, was one of my requests from Mr. Moghaddassi. I am afraid neither the Ministry of Cooperatives nor the other ministries related to printing industry support the cooperatives in this field , that is why we are experiencing many closed cooperatives of printing industries." 

Finally, Shoja, explaining the promises made by the member of industrial commission, said, "Mr. Moghaddassi , as one of the rep. in Industry Commission which is specialized in printing industry, promised to review the tax problem of printing industry in the Commission of Economy in order to solve the tax problem of the printing industry with the cooperation of other representatives and to reduce the coefficient of the value added tax from 9% to 3% so that the tax fairness will be realized. Moreover, Mr. Moghaddassi promised to consult with the Minister of Economy and Industry and even the Minister of Economy and Assets on the realization of the requests of printing industry until the legislation relevant to tax would be discussed at the parliament."