How legal is the lithographers' demand for the allocated foreign currencies of paper to purchase lithographic metal plate?

According to the Tasnim News Agency cultural correspondent, in a litter to the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Gholamreza Shoja, the CEO of the Cooperative of Lithographers, called for one eightieth of the allocated foreign currencies of paper to be assigned for the purchase of lithographic metal plate.

 In a part of the letter he wrote, "As per the demand of most domestic press, I ask you to order that one eightieth of 40 million USD of the governmental allocated foreign currency of paper to be assigned to only the Cooperative of Lithographers for the imports of lithographic metal plates which are not domestically produced so that they will be imported for at least six months of lithographers' requirements. We will be ready to supply the lithographic metal plates required for publishers, if you are willing to do so."

Although the letter was sent two weeks ago, the Ministry of the Culture and Islamic Guidance has not made a decision in this regard yet. In an interview with Tasnim, referring to his follow-ups, Shoja noted, "The Minister of the Culture and Islamic Guidance has forwarded the letter to his press deputy. We have already negotiated with the press deputy, and they agree with this demand to some extent, but we have to wait for what action will be taken."

In response to whether the Ministry of Guidance has the authority to allocate a part of the budget assigned by the Cabinet or not, he said, "I have already spoken with Mr. Vakili, the member of the parliament, in this respect. He said that in a meeting on the allocated foreign currency to the Ministry of Guidance, Mr. Jahangiri had said that the 80 million USD would be for the press and publication, and paper issue was not specifically addressed, but since paper was the demand and mentality of Ministry of Islamic Guidance, the allocated budget became known as paper currency."

Shoja restated, "If the Ministry of Guidance does not agree with the demand, we will face 100% inflation in near future, because the election approaches, and after that the book fair will occur. All these will cause the supply of metal plates decreases and become expensive. Only two or three percent of the total metal plates supplied by governmental currency have remained."