LUXTON ANNOUNCES 1998/99 FISHING INDUSTRY LEVIES AND TRANSACTION CHARGES

The Minister of Food, Fibre, Biosecurity and Border Control today announced the new fisheries cost recovery levies and transactions charges for the 1998/99 fishing year beginning on 1 October.

Mr Luxton said today, "New Zealand exports around $1.2 billion from the sustainable utilisation of our fisheries resource every year. It is a very valuable contribution to the economy and I know that those in the industry work very hard to earn this valuable export income."

Costs and levies are set after an extensive consultation process with relevant stakeholders. Of the total cost of fisheries management and related conservation services the taxpayer will pay approx $20.2 million while $32.4 million will be collected from the fishing industry, which excludes transaction charges of approximately $2 million.

The Minister was pleased to note that most transaction charges remain unchanged from last years levels.

?We are constantly looking at how we can better allocate these levies and transactions charges to industry,? John Luxton said. "I am grateful for the submissions I have received from a wide range of fishing industry members on this matter.?

In the consultations preceding his decisions on the levy order the Minister had regard to the impact of under and over recoveries from prior year levy orders. However, given a wide range of submissions on this issue, particularly the impact on smaller fishers, the Minister concluded that it was not appropriate to include these items at this time.

Earlier this year the Minister announced an independent review of the Fisheries Act following his concerns on the complexity and cost of the existing fisheries management regime. It is anticipated that the independent review of the Fisheries Act will provide a more practical and sustainable framework for the fisheries cost recovery regime. It is in this context that prior year under and over recoveries may again be considered. The independant review will be released shortly.

However, the Minister is disappointed that the proposed change to an hourly charging regime for a range of marine farming and aquaculture related transactions was not able to be implemented due to wording in the Fisheries Act 1996. This problem has been brought to the attention of the independent reviewer of the Act and in the meantime the Chief Executive of the Ministry of Fisheries has been given more scope to part waive some of the charges.