BMPA writes to PTA and chief minister about LBT impact

According to The Bombay Master Printers' Association (BMPA) the issue is compelling and steps must be taken to ensure that there is no repeat episode without legitimate and prior intimation. The BMPA at the behest of its members and industry stake holders has come to address the matter by registering the issue before the Paper Trader Association (PTA), the chief minister of Maharashtra and has also written letters to this effect to print CEOs in Mumbai and across Maharashtra.

Sanjay Patel, the president of the BMPA and managing director at Param Packaging, said, “The overall sentiment pan-industry and across sectors is that LBT is acceptable. But it is the LBT’s proposed mechanism and modalities that are questionable and require deeper considerations based on the persistent experiences we all face at the hands of our revered municipal corporation. We are sure the concerned authorities share our observations and will come to take cognisance of our/industry’s objections and suggestions sooner than later.”

Patel sharing the predicament of trade members added, “However, while all such manoeuvring is staged and reaches completion there is no saying when the unprecedented staged-disruption in our supply chains can repeat. It would be prudent to assume that it should/could happen very soon. As a preventive measure your association, with deepest concerns, recommends you to take adequate measures such as building of paper and RM stock to tide over the crisis.”

BMPA has taken the initiative and shared its view with the PTA and Prithviraj Chauhan, the chief minister of Maharashtra.

In a letter to PTA, Patel said, “The recent ad hoc agitation by your members in support to the clarion call from FAM has greatly inconvenienced and stressed all our members in the city of Mumbai and its other greater extensions as well. It has scalded many of your customers irreparably. Without prior intimation of any kind, our members in the commercial printing and packaging space were left hapless. It takes a lot to build and retain customers however one instance is/can be sufficient reason to switch a vendor. Now as we take stock of this unprecedented matter we are at pains to report that several of our micro-sized members have suffered irreversibly. 

Patel continues, “We laud the resolve to protest but find it necessary to draw your attention to note that the means to do it (the agitation) must be systematic and comprehensive. The basis of any relation is deeply steeped in reciprocal treatment. Once disturbed it takes time to reset the equilibrium. It pans out very similarly between: printers-print buyers and printers-suppliers. That these experiences and sentiments are now clearly assimilated at your end (that of the PTA), we remain reassured to constrain no further. What is increasingly getting clear is that this agitation and struggle is not just that of the trading community but for all consumers of the economy in Mumbai, Greater Mumbai and other municipalities of Maharashtra.”

In the letter to the head of the state, Patel, said, “We respectfully discharge our responsibility by contributing to the city/state on all our consumption via the LBT or octroi. It certainly is no news: that people at large and consumers in particular, find the methods deployed by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai in its conduct and processes – severely lacking, replete with instances of malpractices and requiring systemic reforms. Under such prevailing and trying circumstance, unable to restrain ourselves, we urge you to - proactively take charge of the situation and undertake reformation on the LBT or octroi that is tenable and one that can establish credibility and legitimacy in eyes of all stakeholders of our economy and society.”

Click here to read views of Vinutha Mallya, editor of Booksy.In and publishing consultant, on LBT

Click here to read views of  Anand Limaye, senior printer and head of India Printing Works, on LBT

Click here to read views of Uday Dhote, director of Dhote Offset Technokrafts and treasurer of Maharashtra Mudran Parishad, on LBT

Click here to read views of Sanjay Patel, managing director at Param Packaging and president of Bombay Masters Printers Association (BMPA), on LBT