Over €1 million was collected from tax on fish farms, the government told the Times of Malta, as criticism over the delays in addressing the industry’s impact on the environment continues to mount.
The Office of the Prime Minister said it imposed a tax on the industry’s exports to replace the proposed tax on fish feed that was announced in the last Budget.
The industry strongly opposed the tax on feed, but sources close to the government said that a new tax had been imposed around the mid-year point.
The government told the Times of Malta that this was one measure that had been implemented in addition to new measures introduced last week, such as penalties, to bring the industry in line.
It culminated in a hearing by the Planning Authority last week to revoke the permits for fish farm operators after an investigation spurred by the Environment Ministry revealed that more than half the farms’ cages were illegal.
The PA decided to allow fish farm owners two weeks to come up with a plan to relocate further offshore. This led to a reaction from the Prime Minister, who tweeted that he was “disappointed” by the PA’s actions. Opposition leader Simon Busuttil reacted with the words “fair enough”.
During a press conference yesterday, Planning Parliamentary Secretary Deborah Schembri criticised Dr Busuttil’s stand, saying it proved he had no credibility on environmental matters.
In comments to the Times of Malta, Dr Busuttil hit back, saying that the government’s stand was hypocritical. He pointed out that Dr Schembri had recently announced an amnesty on illegal buildings, saying she was the one whose environmental credentials were questionable.
Now we’re going from one extreme to the other. We want to comply,but this is insane
Dr Busuttil also criticised the Prime Minister’s stand when he pretended the PA did not follow his orders. “Who does the Prime Minister think he’s fooling? Make no mistake, the PA does his bidding,” he said.
“Politics isn’t theatrics. My line is that fish farm owners either respect high environmental standards and relocate away from the coast or else it’s the end of them. Do you achieve that by stopping the entire industry on day one? On the first day in three-and-a-half years of Labour government some sort of action was going to be taken by the PA? Or do you give them two weeks’ time to come up with a clear plan to get in line?” he asked.
One farm operator said he could not understand how the government expected farms to overhaul their operations from one day to the next. “In 20 years, nobody, but nobody, ever came to visit to see what I was doing. Now we’re going from one extreme to the other. We want to comply, but this is insane,” he said.
Dr Busuttil pointed out that the previous administration had tried hard to relocate the farms offshore. “There was a great deal of resistance on their part, supported in no small measure by the then leader of the Opposition, who is today Prime Minister,” he said.
The Office of the Prime Minister defended its actions. “The government gave a clear sign during a Cabinet meeting last week that it expected action against illegalities and pollution coming from fish farms… The Prime Minister’s disappointment came in light of the fact that the PA did not see the urgency in deciding on the revocation of permits. Cabinet also approved a number of measures including a revision of fines for illegalities,” a spokesman said.
The new fines, up to €2,000 per day, came into force last week. Meanwhile, two empty cages were yesterday removed from Comino.
The same operator also merged two cages into one in St Paul’s Bay to reduce the number, according to the Environment Ministry, which also said that another operator would be harvesting all tuna from a cage at his site by tomorrow to remove the cage.
caroline.muscat@timesofmalta.com