Fishing boat owners say high fuel costs wipe out earnings

Lamenting tremendous increases in their operations because of the tax on fuel, fishing boat owners have lauded economist Senator Crystal Drakes for urging Government to remove or at least significantly lower the tax for them.

When Barbados TODAY visited the Bridgetown Fisheries Complex on Monday, several boat owners and operators said her call was a breath of fresh air.

They complained that many of them have seen limited to zero profits, given the increase in the cost of fuel due to the tax that was introduced to replace the road tax.

“We spending all this money on fuel and barely catching fish these days,” they told Barbados TODAY.

Effective July 1, 2018, road tax was abolished and replaced by a fuel tax which was imposed on gasoline and diesel at a rate of $0.40 per litre and kerosene at a rate of $ 0.50 per litre.

During her contribution to the Appropriation Bill 2022 in the Upper House last Friday, Senator Drakes pointed out that while boat owners never paid road tax on their vessels, they now have to pay a fuel tax when they purchase diesel for their boats.

“That policy was not meant for them. Some in the fishing community, when you talk about larger ice boats and the long liners, have seen increases in their operations of up to $5 000 to $8 000 . . . due to the increase in fuel,” she said at the time, asking for relief for members of the fishing community.

Emerald Holder, owner of three long liner fishing boats said he spends over $12 000 on fuel per month for his vessels at this time, and only got half that back in returns.

In fact, Holder said the time had come for him to leave the industry and indicated he would sell his boats if he could find a buyer.

He explained that it had been over a year since boat owners had been prevented from getting fuel duty-free from the Bridgetown Port.

“In these times now where the fish catch is very small, the fuel impact on us is extremely costly. So, I am totally in agreement with Senator Drakes. The fishing industry is a multimillion-dollar industry and if the industry is to be maintained through the boat owners and the fishermen, then concession has to be given with the fuel,” Holder insisted.

“It is costing me about $4,000 every trip to fill up and that has nothing to do with ice, food and the other maintenance that you have to do. And in these hard times, when you go out there with a start-up cost of between $7,000 to $12,000 and then your fish catch is $6,000, you are $6,000 in the red.

“For the last year, I haven’t recovered from my losses and I continue to lose more and more for the last 18 months . . . . I got to come out of the industry because it is not profitable for me,” Holder said.

President of the Barbados National Union of Fisherfolk Organisations (BARNUFO) Vernell Nicholls indicated that from the time the tax was implemented, fisherfolk saw a hike in their operational costs.

She said boat owners have been complaining about the challenges of high fuel costs in addition to low catches. The issue has also been affecting vendors.

“I have had meetings with some of the fishers and they have been able to share some of the changes in expense in the last five years or so before the implementation of the fuel tax and it was a significant change in the prices. We would like to see a response from Government in easing the fishers.

“Once the vessel is on the high seas it has to be using the engine, therefore it has to be using the diesel at all times. And right now [to catch] fish people have to be going a little further out. The diesel would assist with the guys being able to go further, stay out longer and even come in with a better catch,” Nicholls said.

Boat owner Mark Yearwood said consumers are facing high fish prices because fishermen are faced with high diesel bills. He said because he has a long liner, which is continuously running while at sea, he has to dig deep in his pockets to fill up his tank.

“It isn’t like when you go out fishing, you go 150 miles, you sit down and you drift. With a long line boat, you have to be setting, you have to be picking back up, you have to be going back up to your gear.

“So, for us in order to thrive, we would like the VAT removed. A few years back, we used to go to the Port and get duty-free diesel and that got stopped. Sometimes now some of the guys, especially the bigger boats, go to St Vincent and get the diesel cheaper and come back,” Yearwood said. anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb