Ahmadul Haque, a student of Dhaka College, is preparing for job exams. He requires about ten 'distas' (around 250 sheets) of paper a month. He went to the Nilkhet market in the capital on Sunday to buy paper. However, because of price hike, he bought rough newsprint instead of white paper.
This student told Prothom Alo, “I’ve always written on white paper, but this is now selling at Tk 100 extra per ream. I had to buy newsprint paper today, for the first time. From now on, I’ll just have to write on them.” He mentioned he requires all that paper for math practice.
Visiting at least 20 stationery shops in capital’s Nilkhet, Farmgate and Mohammadpur areas, it was seen that the prices of almost all stationery items have gone up, including white paper.
Traders say, basically the prices of imported educational supplies started rising since after Eid-ul-Fitr. The impact of that is visible on locally produced items as well. The price of one stationery item or the another is going up every single day.
A ream of premium-quality white paper is selling at Tk 450 at the stationery shops. Just about a month ago, the same ream was being sold at Tk 360. A ream of medium-quality paper (produced by combining newsprint and printing paper) is costing Tk 350, which was Tk 280 before.
Even the price of newsprint went up by Tk 70 per ream. The same newsprint that sold for Tk 180 per ream is now selling at Tk 250.
The price hike on paper has affected the costs of notebooks. An 80-page notebook made of white paper used to cost Tk 20 a month ago. Now that costs Tk 25. Similarly, the price of notebooks of 100, 120 and 200 pages has also increased.
These notebooks of different local brands are costing an extra five to ten takas. Prices of locally made pens have risen up to Tk 10 on a dozen, increasing to Tk 53-55 from Tk 45. Prices of imported pens are also moving upwards.
Owner of Nilkhet’s Saudia Stationery Shafiqul Islam said, “The price of paper has affected almost all type of educational supplies. For example, a practical notebook of 72 pages has gone to be selling at Tk 52 from Tk 42. And, a 120-page notebook is now selling at Tk 60 increasing from Tk 50.”
Stating that the increase in the price of ordinary pens is comparatively less, this trader said, “Other than pen and paper, the prices of plastic-made stationery items have gone up quite high as well. A regular-quality geometry box, which could be bought with Tk 40 to 45, now costs Tk 75 to 80. Meanwhile, price of the premium quality ones have moved to Tk 150 from Tk 100.”
“The price of 2-B pencils of different brands have gone up from Tk 80 to Tk 95 per dozen. Besides, plastic files of different variety are costing Tk 3 to 5 more,” he added.
Talking to traders it was learnt that, apart from pens, papers and folders, the overall the price of almost all educational supplies including coloured paper, pencils, sharpeners, erasers, markers, staplers, pins, paperclips, office files, calculators, pencil-boxes, steel or plastic scales, coloured pencils, NT cutters, scissors, glue, clipboard used in exams, chemicals used in printing, printer-ink has increased.
Shahjahan Ali, the proprietor of Islamiya Library on Mohammadpur’s Nurjahan Road told Prothom Alo, within the gap of just one month, prices of stationery items have increased by even 20 per cent.
He further added, still the prices are soaring. Even then, the supply of paper in the market has dropped. Prices of these products were not supposed to increase so fast. The government must monitor whether someone is increasing the prices intentionally through syndicates.
Hossain Ahmed, a resident of Mohammadpur area, who was at that shop, said that he had bought a Bangla grammar book of Class 4 for Tk 220 from there. There were some issues with the book so he came to exchange it. However, he had to pay Tk 40 extra as the book price had increased in the meantime.
If the prices of educational items keep soaring like this, it will create an additional pressure on the guardians, he commented.
Jahangir Alam of Nilkhet’s Master Library said that the cost of all kinds of books has gone up by Tk 20 to 50 based on their sizes due to the increase in paper and ink prices.
He added that students of college and university as well as job seekers are the main buyers of books at the moment. They are not buying new books because of the increased costs and so the demand of second-hand books has escalated.
However, Farid Ahmed the president of ‘Bangladesh Gyan O Srijonshil Prokashok Samity’, an association of publishers, said the pressure of price hike is lesser on the textbooks known as ‘creative’ books.
He informed Prothom Alo, “At this particular time of the year, usually there are fewer buyers for ‘creative’ books. Plus, fewer books are printed at this time. So, we are not feeling that much pressure yet. However, the price of paper in the market is quite high.
“We are awaiting the government’s stance on this sector in the next budget, he added.