About 100 fishermen in Sungai Besar staged a peaceful demonstration today to protest the proposal to impose jetty landing and boat parking charges at every dock in the state.
The fishermen demanded that the Selangor state government under the leadership of PKR withdrew the proposal which they described as illogical and a move to oppress them.
Selangor Fishermen Association (Penegor) chairperson Mohd Jaman Haris said a memorandum signed by representatives of 72 District Fishermen Associations (PNK) was sent to Selangor Menteri Besar Mohamed Azmin Ali on May 27.
“I represent 6,000 fishermen who demand that Menteri Besar Mohamed Azmin Ali cancel the proposal to impose an annual tax of RM600 on the fishermen in this state, but to date, there has been no response from him.
“We demand that the state government immediately state its stand, especially to put the restlessness of fishermen in Selangor to rest,” he said.
Recently, the Selangor government through the Selangor Water Management Authority (Luas) issued a proposal to impose jetty landing and boat docking charges of RM600 yearly on 6,000 fishermen in the state.
The proposal included a tax payment for the use of jetties built by the federal government, the private sector and jetties under LKIM.
Expressing regret over the proposal, Mohd Jaman said the state government should instead look for ways to help increase the income of the fishermen, in line with their slogan of ‘state revenue for the people’.
It is understood that since early this year, the state government had conducted a census at three major jetties in Port Klang, Sungai Besar and Kuala Selangor, with two more areas - Kuala Langat and Sepang left for the census to be carried out.
Elaborating further, Mohd Jaman said the main jetties in the state in Sungai Besar, Kuala Selangor, Port Klang, Kuala Langat and Sepang had been built by the federal government through the Fisheries Development Authority of Malaysia (LKIM) while its management is placed under the fishermen’s association in each area.
“Why does the state government want to impose an annual jetty landing and docking charge of RM600 on us when all this while we did not have to pay a charge to use the existing jetties,” he said.
Mohd Jaman said the fishermen had no problems accepting the state government’s proposal to impose a Temporary Occupation Licence on jetty land in the state, but this should be reasonable and not a burden on them.
Meanwhile, Agriculture and Agro-Based Industries Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek, who visited the fishermen, said it was illogical to impose the charge on the fishermen.
“I understand the state government or any other government wanting to collect revenue, but it should not affect the productivity of the people, and they have not given a clear reason for the charge,” he said.
He added that if the state government’s reason for the tax was to improve the facilities such as freezers and to modernise the area, it (the charge) could be accepted.
- Bernama
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