Aim is to pay outstanding to fishers every week: Ministry

The Director General of the Ministry of Fisheries and Ocean Resources Minister Ahmed Shifaz said on Tuesday that the government is targeting to pay the remaining outstanding money to fishermen every week.

He made the statement on SSTV’s “Baaru Hathareh” program while speaking about the arrangements made by the ministry regarding the grievances shared by local fishermen.

Shifaz said that the Maldives Industries Fisheries Company (MIFCO) will no longer be keeping any pending payments, creating a backlog and instead will pay the outstanding amounts to fishermen regularly.

He further said that MIFCO will not face any difficulties paying to fishers in light of the current fish purchase rates locally. He added that MIFCO recently experienced difficulties owing to low fisheries activities and added that fish could not be purchased at the same average price due to low fishing in the past two months.

“In the past two months, there were days with just 10 or 20 tons of fish or less than that. This challenged MIFCO’s operations significantly,” Shifaz said.

Shifaz said that, with the recent upward momentum in fisheries activities, MIFCO has been generating proper revenue from its exports that in turn has strengthened the company’s financials.

He added that MIFCO has assured to the ministry that it is now capable of paying outstanding money to the fishermen.

The current administration had pledged to pay fishermen within 48 hours earlier. However, the Minister of Fisheries, Ahmed Shiyam, previously said that due to current economic conditions, payments will be made within two weeks.