The SEAI has jotted down various issues that bogging down the fisheries sector of India and presented a memorandum to UPA chairpersons SoniaGandhi, whose government is in the centre. The memorandum contains the complaints and challenges that the fishing industry is now facing.
The SEAI has said in the memorandum that the Indian fisheries sector is facing the biggest-ever crisis in its history mainly because of the rupee appreciation. Continuous rise in fuel prices has also deepen the crisis. The fuel prices has risen over 80 percent which put the local fishermen in tough situation. Besides, the anti-dumping duty levied on shrimp by the US administration and abundant supply of the low-cost Vanammae species of shrimp by South-East Asian countries have also affected the export sector badly in the last 10-12 months.
The SEAI also mention the plight of the fishermen due to this crisis. According to SEAI, over 2 million fishermen, farmer and 50,000 workers in the seafood processing sector are losing their livelihood. Exports have plunged by 20 percent in the term of Indian rupee and are expected to drop by 50 percent in dollar term which could lead the fisheries sector into severe crisis.
In the memorandum SEAI has demanded the government to eliminate local levies of excise and sales tax on diesel for fishing, to provide land and finance for cage farming, to introduce Vanammae shrimp along with Black Tiger in aquaculture, to raise DEPB rates by 5 percent more and to eliminate service tax. The support under the Foreign Trade Policy is also mention in the memorandum.
