Dried Fish importers happy

Shirajiv SIRIMANE

BUDGET MOVE: The Dried Fish Importers' Association (DFIA) hails the budget proposal by the Government to remove the import duty on Dry Fish to Sri Lanka. Secretary of the DFIA, J. R. Anthony said this decision initiated by Finance Minister President Mahinda Rajapaksa is very timely and would not affect the local producers.

"Unlike some of the other products that are imported the local production is less than 10 percent and that too has reduced due to lack of proper transport to the North-East," he said.

The present local production is further curtailed due to the unavailability of fish to produce dried fish.

Over 90 percent of the less affluent people like the estate workers, farmers and Samurdhi beneficiaries use dry fish daily. Out of this over 80 percent is consumed in rural areas.

He said that the present daily dry fish consumption is around 100 tonnes. Anthony who is also the Managing Director of R and R International one of the largest importers of dry fish and maldive fish said that however the benefit of the removal of duty is still not going 100 percent to the consumers.

He said one reason for this is that there is a price-controlling body and it is the private sector, which decides on the price.

"The Government must purchase dry fish in bigger quantities and release it to the market so that it would stabilise the price in the market," he said. He also said the Government should also try to remove the 5 percent VAT, which is imposed on imports.

"If these two measures are taken by the Government the prices of dried fish would come down drastically and would have a major positive impact on the overall prices of essential items," he said. Maldive fish is imported from Thailand, India, the Maldives and from the Gulf.