Kerala - Kochi   

Collection of details of fishworkers’ debt begins

KOCHI: To get an idea of the size of fishworkers’ debt burden, the Fisheries Department has launched an effort to collect details of the money they owe to banks.

This is in view of the passage of the fishermen’s debt relief Bill by the Assembly and the Union government’s plan to waive farmers’ and fishworkers’ loans. The Bill proposes to set up a commission, on the lines of the Agricultural Debt Relief Commission, to consider write off/reduction of overdue loans taken by fishworkers from commercial as well as cooperative banks. Again, the Union budget last month proposed to write off/reduce the farm loans that include loans taken by fishworkers.

The department has asked individual fishworkers to apply for loan waiver by providing a certificate from the bank manager concerned that contains the amount of loan, outstanding balance and other details. The waiver will apply to loans taken from nationalised, scheduled and co-operative banks. Only the loans taken for purchasing ‘means of production of fishing’ until December 31 last year, whose repayment/ instalments are overdue will be considered. The applications have to be handed over to the Matsya Bhavans, which are the field offices of the Fisheries Department. Each Matsya Bhavan will make a consolidated account of the debt burden with relevant details, department officials said. Neither the department nor the trade unions have a clear idea of the size of fishworkers’ debt. A quick guess estimate was made for the purpose of preparation of the debt relief Bill. The figure was initially put at Rs.424 crore, which was later increased by a 100 crore.

Fisheries authorities feel that when fishworkers turn in their applications, a more or less correct picture of the debt burden will emerge.

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