The Union Budget seems to have let down the country’s fisheries sector, employing 14 million people, for failing to address its various demands.
According to Joseph Xavier Kalappurackal, General Secretary of the All Kerala Fishing Boat Owners Association, the long pending demand of the fishing community for a uniform law in seawaters has not been considered. Today, each state has different laws pertaining to fishing, which gives innumerable difficulties to fishermen to venture into the sea.
Likewise, the demand for promulgating a new law to carry out marketing of the fish catch throughout the country without the interference of middlemen has not met. The Finance Minister has also not heeded to the request for constructing coastal roads connecting towns with fish landing centres as well as extending diesel subsidy for trawling boats in marine pumps by avoiding the road cess.
“I did not see much of incentives for fisheries or aquaculture given ‘Blue Revolution’ is the next big thing which our Prime Minister is aspiring after ‘Green’ & ‘White’ Revolutions in the country”, said Kamlesh Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director, WestCoast Group, a fully integrated aquaculture and seafood company said . In comparison to an allocation for schemes under Green Revolution (₹13,741 crore) and White Revolution (₹1,634 crore) in the Budget, Blue Revolution has been allocated with only ₹401 crore, he added.
Fisheries do not enjoy the same benefits as agriculture, despite the sector coming under the purview of Agriculture Ministry. It is high time for the Government to set up a Fisheries Ministry to oversee the growth of the sector, he added.
Aqua farming and seafood processing are capital intensive activities. “We were expecting tax incentives for aqua farming and seafood processing, which would have helped towards bringing the cost of operations and make seafood more affordable, considering it is the cheapest source of healthy proteins," he said.