Fisheries Commission urged to review “outrageous increment” in license fee

The Fisheries Commission is being urged by the National Fisheries Association of Ghana to reduce the recently announced increase in fishing license fees for the operation of a fishing vessel on Ghanaian waters.

A member of the Association, Richter Nii Armah Amarfio, in an interview with Citi News, accused the Fisheries Ministry of short-changing members of the association by introducing the new fishing licensing fee.

According to him, the Fisheries Commission has in the past neglected their plights and has only been interested in taking money from them.

He further explained that the operational cost of fishermen has increased significantly to a point where their businesses have been negatively affected.

“At this time, our cost of operation is going is going high and our income is going low. We have raised concerns that our Pole and lines vessels are collapsed and nothing is happening, the ministry and the commission does not do anything to enhance the work of the industry, their interest is how to raise money from us and we think it doesn’t work to our benefit, we can’t just pay it, we can break even, we can’t add to our current operational cost, it will collapse our businesses.”

The Fisheries Commission in a letter dated December 31, 2019, and signed by its Executive Director, Mr. Michael Arthur-Dadzie, indicated that the new fishing license fees approved by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning would take effect from January 1, 2020.

The letter stated that “the chargeable rate per vessel for all industrial vessels (Tuna and Trawlers) is US$200 per GRT or its equivalent at the prevailing Bank of Ghana rate”.