RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Di­rec­tor of Fish­eries Ner­is­sa Lucky says her team will be go­ing to the Ota­heite Fish­ing Bay this month to ed­u­cate fish­er­folk on how to ap­ply for fu­el re­bates.

Her com­ments came as fish­er­folk com­plained that they were un­aware fu­el re­bates were be­ing giv­en.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Lucky said fish­eries of­fi­cers pe­ri­od­i­cal­ly vis­it fish­ing ports to train fish­er­folk in a num­ber of ar­eas. She said one of the chal­lenges be­ing ex­pe­ri­enced is the ab­sence of fish­er­folk dur­ing train­ing ses­sions.

Re­spond­ing to a call from the Ota­heite fish­er­folk, Lu­ucky said ini­tial­ly train­ing was card­ed for to­mor­row at the port but af­ter con­sult­ing with the fish­er­folk, it was de­cid­ed that the train­ing will take place on April 24 in­stead.

Mean­while, sev­er­al boat own­ers said they were hap­py that the Min­istry had heed­ed their pleas for train­ing.

The re­bates are be­ing of­fered to reg­is­tered fish­er­men for the pur­chase of diesel, gaso­line and oil to ease the fi­nan­cial bur­den ever since the fu­el price jumped six times since 2012.

Boat own­er Han­iff Mo­hammed said while they were grate­ful that re­bates will be pro­vid­ed, they were hop­ing that re­bates could be of­fered for kerosene pur­chas­es as well.

He said 50 per cent of fish­er­folk use kerosene to pow­er their pirogues yet there is no re­bate of­fered for kerosene.

Cur­rent­ly, pre­mi­um gas is priced at $7.75 per litre, su­per costs $6.97 per litre, Diesel costs $4.41 per litre and kerosene costs $4.50 per litre.

An­oth­er boat own­er Ke­ta­ma Hen­ry said many fish­er­men did not know they qual­i­fy for a fu­el re­bate.

He said fish­er­men should keep their bills and make claims as the cost of fu­el was ex­or­bi­tant. 

On the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture’s web­site, it was stat­ed that reg­is­tered fish­er­men can ap­ply for re­bates. Those us­ing gaso­line are en­ti­tled to 12 cents per litre while diesel-op­er­at­ed ves­sels get ten cents per litre. The fish­er­men al­so get 75 cents per litre for oil used.