The fishing season along the Gujarat coast formally drew to a conclusion Tuesday. Fishermen from major fishing hubs of Porbandar, Veraval, Okha, Mangrol, Jakhau, etc have dropped their anchors with almost no boat at sea. This comes more than two months after soaring diesel prices forced a majority of fishermen from going to the sea in March.
Officially, the fishing season ends on May 31. But leaders of the community say the season for most fishermen ended in February. “The soaring diesel prices forced many fishermen to end their season in February when the price of subsidised diesel, which fishermen get as bulk consumers, drew level with the retail prices. Then came the Rs 25 increase in price of bulk diesel. This meant that 90 per cent of fishermen dropped anchor and ended their fishing season,” Mukesh Panjari, president of Porbandar Machhimar Boat Association (PMBA), an organisation of fishing boat owners, told The Indian Express. Oil marketing companies (OMCs) had increased the prices of diesel for its bulk consumers like railways, transporters, malls, public transport services, etc by Rs 25 per litre on March 21.
There is palpable anxiety among the fishermen and their cooperative societies over high prices of bulk diesel coinciding with falling prices of fish. Panjari says fishing operations didn’t remain sustainable as the hike took the effective price of diesel for fishermen in Porbandar to Rs 114.75 per litre. That was around Rs 15 higher than Rs 100 per litre price of diesel in the retail market. “The fuel price hike came at a time when catch was already dwindling and the prices of fish were under pressure due to weak Chinese demand following resurgence of Covid-19 there,” says the PMBA president.
The state government gives Rs 15 per litre VAT (value-added tax) rebate on up to 24,000 litres of diesel per annum per fishing boat. However, to avail the VAT rebate, one has to mandatorily purchase diesel from one of the 18 diesel pumps run by cooperative societies or the 18 diesel pumps run by the Gujarat Fisheries Central Cooperative Association (GFCCA) Limited, the state government-controlled federation of the fishermen’s cooperatives.
Through FGCCA, these cooperative societies get diesel from OMCs at discounted rates and sell them to their member-fishermen by charging an average Rs 2 per litre service charge to fishermen. In all, 289 cooperative societies of fishermen are GFCCA members.
The steep hike not only annulled the VAT subsidy benefit for a fishing boat owner, but also made diesel costlier by an average Rs 14 per litre at 38 pumps run by GFCCA and fishermen’s cooperative societies as compared commercial petrol pumps retailing diesel and petrol in the state. Therefore, fishermen stopped purchasing from these diesel pumps and instead, started purchasing from private petrol pumps.
Meanwhile, after representations made to Union Fisheries Minister Parshottam Rupala and Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, IOC decreased the price for fishermen of Gujarat. However, Panjari says it is still Rs 8 higher than the price in the retail market.
“We were getting some catches as not many fishing boats were operating and there was time for one more trip. But the boat owner told me that the diesel price is too high and it was economically too risky to go on one more trip. Therefore, our fishing season ended on May 18,” Devji Baraiya (52), tandel or captain of Porbandar-registered fishing trawler Annapurna said.
Fish traders say the prices of ribbon fish and croaker fish—the two varieties that form the bulk of catch of fishermen from Gujarat round the year—have decreased. “Before the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, croaker used to fetch Rs 125 to Rs 150 per kg. Ribbon fish also used to trade between Rs 100 to Rs 125 per kg. But China, which is the biggest market of these varieties, is importing less. Therefore, the prices have dropped to average Rs 70 for croaker and Rs 60 for ribbon fish. Prices of squid have gone up but fishermen are not netting them in enough quantities,” says Ramesh Bharadiya, a fish trader in Porbandar.
Premji Vandariya, who owns eight fishing boats, cut down the operations. He ordered tandels of six of his boats to end the season in February while continuing to operate only two. “At Rs 100 per litre, we need Rs 2.5 lakh exclusively for diesel per fishing trip. That is around Rs 60,000 more than usual. With no assurance of a good catch nor of good prices of fish, it was wise to call an early end to the season,” Vandariya says. However, the leaders of fishermen’s cooperative societies are the most worried lot. For the cooperative societies as well as the GFCCA, sale of subsidised diesel is the main and almost only source of revenue these days. Diesel sales accounted for Rs 482.59 lakh crore of GFCCA’s total revenue of Rs 492.09 crore in 2020-21. The profit from diesel sales was Rs 17.46 crore out of the association’s total profit of Rs 21.84 crore.
But the price disparity in the bulk market and reduced demand for diesel from fishermen are threatening the very existence of these cooperative bodies. “No fisherman has shown up at our diesel pumps for the last three months to purchase diesel. If something is not done by the beginning of the next fishing season in August, we may well become redundant and defunct,” Manu Modi, member of executive council of Porbandar-registered Jay Sagar Matsyodhyog Sahkari Mandali Limited, a fishermen’s cooperative society that runs a diesel pump each in Porbandar and Veraval, says.
Damodar Chamudiya, chairman of Mahavir Machchhimar Sahkari Mandali (MMSM), a cooperative society in Mangrol, says it has an annual turnover of around Rs 600 crore and more than Rs 420 crore revenue comes from the sale of diesel from a pump it operates. “We use the profit of the Mandali for the welfare of the fishermen like organising mass weddings, extending loans to fishermen, etc. Without revenue from diesel sales, we may not be able to sustain and with that, fishermen may lose bargaining power in the market and our weight in the government,” Chamudiya says.