NFA to review rebate scheme

National

By GYNNIE KERO
THE National Fisheries Authority (NFA) will conduct a review on a new rebate scheme in six months, managing director John Kasu says.
It will see if there has been an increase in what is coming into the processing plants, if there has been an increase in ships and how many more jobs have been created.
Kasu last Friday paid to six tuna firms K8.6 million for processing 6652.17 metric tonnes of tuna last month. Under the scheme, the rebate per metric ton of tuna processed is US$400 (about K1200).
Chief Secretary Isaac Lupari had earlier expressed confidence that more jobs and spin-off businesses would be created as tuna processors ramped up production this year.
The scheme was introduced by the government after a study found that most tuna caught in Papua New Guinea waters were sent offshore and not processed in local factories.
As a result, jobs and millions of dollars in export earnings were lost to processing Papua New Guinea’s tuna in countries such as the Philippines and Thailand.
Lupari urged managing director John Kasu to ensure figures provided by the industry were audited to prevent abuse.
“In the long run, we want to create more jobs for our people, jobs that have been lost overseas as a result of our fish going offshore. We want to retain export revenue that has been lost to other countries over a long period,” he said.