VASCO
All Goa Fishing Boat Owners Association President Jose Philip D'Souza on Saturday claimed that small boat owners are in trouble and faced with hardships after the government discontinued fishing subsidies offered to them.
He has requested the government to restart the fishing-related subsidies offered to boat owners.
“The government would earlier give reimbursement of VAT charged on the fuel (diesel) as a subsidy to boat owners, but this has been discontinued by the government for the last two years,” said D’Souza while speaking to reporters.
“While this is one issue, the previous subsidies pending for many years have not been cleared as yet. This should have been done before the subsidies were discontinued by the government.”
“Today, boat owners do not have money to buy fuel and some boat owners who spend on fuel return with less catch from the sea and cannot recover their fuel costs. The situation is such that many boat owners have stopped venturing into the sea and we may soon see a significant drop in this traditional business of Goa," said D’Souza.
D’Souza said they have already met Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and have submitted their requests to the government and the fisheries minister to immediately resume fuel subsidies to fishing boat owners.
“While the Goa government has discontinued fishing subsidy schemes, such schemes continue for the fishing community in Karnataka and Maharashtra. Why should the fishermen community struggle only in Goa where our pending subsidies are not cleared and the scheme is further discontinued," asked D’Souza.
Jetty woes
D'Souza also expressed concerns over the dilapidated Kharewaddo fishing jetty.
"The government has spent a lot of money to develop fishing jetties across Goa in places like Malim, Cutbona, Betul, etc. But we are struggling with a dilapidated fishing jetty which is small and does not accommodate all our boats,” said D’Souza.
“We have been demanding a better jetty for several years but the government has turned a blind eye. Many years ago, the major issue was that the Mormugao Port Authority (MPA) would create issues by claiming this area to be in their jurisdiction but we managed to get an NOC from them and handed it over to the government two years ago. But nothing has been done. We have now been informed by the Director of Fisheries that they will take up a floating jetty of about 100 metres," said D’Souza.
