PANJIM: The Goa Fishing Boat Owners Association (GFBOA) President Jose Philip D’Souza on Thursday said that though outgoing fishing season was good, low rates somewhat played a dampener.
As the fishing season came to a close due to implementation of 61-day fishing ban from June 1, D’Souza said that the subsidies for the last two years had not been cleared by the Fisheries Department and demanded that the government should repair and expand the existing dilapidated fishing jetty at Kharewado.
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He said that since the jetty was small in size, many a times boats had to wait for their turn in the sea to anchor at the jetty and would take minimum four days to offload their nets.
D’Souza said that though many boat owners had a good fish catch yet it did not fetch good rates for catch especially mackerels.
He said that there was a delay in reimbursing VAT on fuel for the last two years and it was causing difficulties to the boat owners.
D’Souza appealed to the government to release the pending amount so that the boat owners can utilise it to repair their boats during the ban period and get prepared for the next fishing season.
