LAHORE, March 13: The Punjab Carton Manufacturers Association has demanded duty-free import of paper to counter `unprecedented increase’ in prices.

The demand was voiced in a meeting of the association held here on Tuesday with Sheikh Zubair Anwar in chair.

The participants said that duty-free import of paper was the need of the hour as its prices had reached the highest-every level in 60 years and 3000 carton manufacturing units in the province were threatened with closure as a result. Hundreds of thousands of workers would lose their jobs as a result, the meeting was told.

HARDWARE: The Pakistan Hardware Merchants Association has demanded provision of e-filing facility at all the dryports to reduce pressure on Karachi Port by facilitating clearing of goods there.

Voicing the demand in a statement, association chairman Sardar Usman Ghani said that importers preferred to get their goods cleared through e-filing because it saved both time and money. The facility was available only at the Karachi Port at present with the result that all the importers got their goods cleared from there. They could get their goods cleared from other dryports if the facility was made available there as well.—Reporter