LAHORE, March 15: The All-Pakistan Paper Merchants Association has urged the government to exempt the import of paper from customs duty, income tax and sales tax to counter unjustified increase in price by the mills. Association’s north circle president Malik Khalid Javed and secretary-general Khwaja Raees Ahmad said in a statement that the government was making efforts to increase the literacy rate but the prices of books were out of reach of the poor people due to frequent increase in paper prices by the mills. Tax-free import of paper was necessary to prevent the mills from unjustified increase in prices through competition, they said.