The paper problem will not be solved as long as the governmental exchange rate is allocated to it.

In an interview with ISNA News Agency, Roghani Golpayegani said, “The paper market problems will be solved with respect to domestic production; otherwise the country’s foreign currency will be allocated to create employment in foreign countries and to import low quality paper, and it will pave the way for those who intend to abuse the USD at an exchange rate of 4200Tomans.”

He continued, “The difference created by allocating USD at 4200Tomans to paper imports causes the people take advantage of the alternatives ways and use these financial resources in other sectors except paper imports.”

Noting that the focus on the domestic production is one of the solutions to the problems of the paper market, the head of the Iran Syndicate of Paper and Cardboard Manufacturers said, “As long as the foreign currency at the governmental exchange rate is allocated to paper import, the market problems will not be solved.”

According to ISNA, the paper crisis started in the fall of 2017. Although the crisis was controlled to some extent by clearing a paper cargo from the customs then, this industry faced problems due to the increase in exchange rate so that about one year afterwards, the irregular rise of paper price led to the letter written by the publishers’ guild call on government officials to seriously take actions to solve the shortage and high price of paper.”

On the other hand, the secretary of the paper working group of organizing paper declared in the mid march of 2019, “37 thousand and 354 tons of newsprint and 318 thousand and 623 tons of different types of writing paper have been imported last year, but 6915 tons of newsprint and 13 thousand and 649 tons of writing paper were distributed under the supervision of the cultural and media deputy of the Ministry of Culture. It means, the rest of the imported paper by allocating governmental exchange rate was illegally distributed. This predicament has also continued in the current year so that some journals and newspapers had to cut the number of their papers.”