The ALL Tobago Fisherfolk Association (ATFA) wants the government to implement special gas rebates for fishermen in Monday’s national budget.
“In order to preserve our economy, we need to make some drastic steps. The first thing we are looking for from the fishing industry is to see special gas rebates for the fisherfolk – gas rebates every two weeks instead of every three months. We are looking at 50-75 cents on a litre.
"But we will leave that up to the Finance Minister,” ATFA president Curtis Douglas said on Thursday at a news conference on the Scarborough Esplanade.
He is also hoping to see a greater investment in agriculture and fishing to preserve food security.
“We realise there is a trend going on in the world where we are seeing the British people are now consuming more local products. So you are seeing a lot of imported products on the shelves and the local products are being sold out. We would like to see that happening in our beautiful republic.”
Douglas also called for a waiver on imported boat engines for fishermen.
“Currently, we are using two-stroke machines. That is basically phased out in the US and the United Kingdom.
"So we have to get on board to also make our contribution. Because if the gas price is high and we are able to bring forth these four-stroke machines, it means that we will now pay less for gas, because the four-stroke machines burn less petrol than a two-stroke machine.
“So we are looking for at least a two or three-year waiver whereby the fisherfolk could now be able to import four-stroke machines.”
In this regard, Douglas said fishermen should be able to access loans at the Agricultural Development Bank to buy the engines.
“We are now looking to get rid of something that we already have to bring in something that contributes to our food security. So with that we could now be able to stabilise fish prices, because now we will be using less petrol.”
Douglas said the Finance Minister should also offer waivers on the importation of larger fishing boats, not pirogues, to give fisherfolk a competitive edge.
“Tobago fisherfolk is 99 per cent pirogue fishing. But in order to compete with the world and to preserve food security, we have to make that transition, and it will start from him making sure that we get some of these boats to come in.”
