PULP AND PAPER INDUSTRY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000500610329-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 16, 2013
• Sequence Number: 329
• Publication Date: August 24, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/04/16: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500610329-6
U.S. Officials Only
CONFIDENTIAL
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
COUNTRY India
Pulp and Paper Industry
SUBJECT
On ? ? On VA orris inn foot NA
Or OM UNITIO IIATrlinT?In[Anine OF TITIA IS. $0071001 SSA
1'011 704. Or Toli?ti II CAME Al ITS rlsoossilsOlOss O. SITE.
1.107,011 OF 07$ COOSKOTS TO ON OSCCIPT ov AA 0000lniA1010 VISION IS
?
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
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REPORT
DATE DISTR. Z1.47i. Aug 54
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NO. OF PAGES 2
NO. OF ENCLS.
SUPP. TO
REPORT NO.
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1.
2.
3.
4.
India is
its newspapers
English'
So far,
purchabeu
the annual
figures
in the
10,000,
At the
setting up its own newsprint industry to meet the growing needs of
as the Spread of literacy indreases the circulation of the
and Indian-language press. 50X1-HUM
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all newsprint is Imported. 6o,000 tons were
f"om Finland, Austria, Canada, Scandinavia and Czechos to meet
cor....7rotion which is reckoned today at 69,000 tons. ( import
not available.) Finland -.5.8 India's biggest supplier with 15,000 tons
last trade year followed by Austria, Norway and Sweden with 14,000,
and 5000:tena respectively.
commencement of World War II, India's annual consumption was only 39,000
tons. in the industry estimate India will need 120,000 tons of
ILII:lexperte
newspr.n
Viewing
foreign
have invested
go
output
boo,
boo, straw,
blueprinted
Uttar Pradesh
year - double its present consumption.
the potential World-wide shortage and urged by the necessity of saving
currency, the Governments of India and of Madhya Pradesh State
US$5,000,000 in a newsprint plant called Nepa Mills Ltd. This
into production in the first quarter with an estimated annual
of 30,000 tone. Nepa will use importeds well as indigenous bam-
rags and auger-cane husk. At the same time, private interests have
a plant of 8imi1ar capacity, to be called Star Paper Mills Ltd., in
State. Plans for this unit now are being finalized on the
strength of recommendations made on mechanical logging by a U.N. expert.
Ak
5 The Uttar Pradesh plant will use raw materials from the spruce and fir forests
of nearby Himalaysia Teri-Oarwahl, a former princely state, but the -difficulty
of floating the logs down the torrential Jamuna and Ganga rivers remains to be
overcome.
U.S. OffIclils Only
CONFIDENTIAL
IISTRIOUTION I STATE &J.! 'ARMY
1 1
IMMY MR
This report is for the use within the USA of the Intelligence components of the Departments or
Agencies indicated above. It in not to be transmitted overseas without the concurrence of the
originating office through the Assistant Director of the Office CI Collection and Dissemination, CIA.
I Ire
dig Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/04/16 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000500610329-Lmmi
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/04/16: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500610329-6
CONFIDENTIAL V US OFFICIALS ONLY
Page 2
6. Paper other than newsprint is more plentiful. Twelve pulp mi1l:3 manufacture
90,020 tone a year, which meets India's current domestic needs. Therefore no
pulp is imported except a small amount of the sulphite variety, which comes from
Scandinavia and the U.S. India also makes 15,000 tons of wrapping paper (
the annual consumption was 30,000 tons) and 22,880 tons of Other varietts
suci AS rgtruv, mill, duplex, ticket and file boards. /t is the Indian industry's
claim tat some of the writing and foolscap paper it produces is the cheapest in
the world, at 13 cents a pound.
7. .Almost all the pulp and paper mills have shown a good profit during the last two
years. The biggest among them (the Titaghar Paper Mills, West Bengal, Shri Gopal
Mills, . Punjab and Rohtas, Bihar) have bought new machinery from Germany, Swe-
den and the U.S. to step up production, which is expected to increase by 10% to
15% 'during the last three years. However, at a recent meeting of the Calcutta
Paper Traders' Association, its President pointed out that China had booked prac-
ticallY sll Europe's newsprint output for the first three quarters
SiMittscks have not been built up, India is likely to face a newsprint shortage
between 7ow and the time when the output of Nepa Mills will be on the market.
8.
Newsprint is on Open General License. All paper, other than board, is liable
to a customs duty of 33% plus 5% surcharge. (Board has a duty of 66%.) On
writing,1 printing and wrapping paper, which is under license and quota, the
quotalary from 5%_ to 45,% of each importer's previous imports when there was
no reciiilxion.
_
9. What irks the newsprint and paper dealer is the sales tax which is charged in
20 of the 30 states of the Indian Union. The paper and newsprint business works
on a narrow margin with dealer profits ranging from 14,61,,m'o 3%. When 10% in
th
sales tat is demanded from e consumer, he prefers top
ort direct. Most
newspapers buy their newsprint direct from overseas thus removing the traders.
Trade and Industry have led a public agitation on this issue in Bombay state but
the tax seems to have come to stay - a useful source of revenue for financially
hard-pressed administrations.
- end -
CONFIDENTIAL /US OFFICIALS ONLY
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1-_leclassif1ed in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/04/16: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500610329-