Fremskrittspartiet (Frp) fears lost jobs due to a new tax on ‘farmed’ fish

Photo: Progress Party.Roy Steffensen

Progress Party (Frp) are afraid that the new levy on farmed fish that parliament has pushed through will lead to new jobs going to Poland instead of Norway.

Parliament voted to adopt the levy late on Thursday night, against the votes of Høyre (H) and the Frp. It enables Norwegian coastal municipalities to earn 400 million in annual revenues, according to the Sosialistisk Venstreparti (SV), who proposed the levy.


But on Monday, in a written question to party colleague, and Fisheries Minister, Per Sandberg, Frp parliamentary commissioner, Roy Steffensen, will ask for updated figures on how many jobs the processing of Norwegian salmon will directly and indirectly create in Europe.
In 2013, a report showed the figure to be 100,000 jobs.


‘These are 100,000 jobs we should have had at home,’ said Steffensen to NTB news agency. He fears the new fee, in a worst case scenario, could lead to more jobs going to Poland than Norway.


‘The fee is to be paid per kilogram of unprocessed fish exported. The municipalities will thus get money straight into their account if processing takes place abroad, rather than in a local company in their own municipality’, noted the Frp representative.


SVs Torgeir Knag Fylkesnes believes the fee is an important victory for Norwegian coastal municipalities.
‘Fish farm companies don’t pay anything to use the community’s marine areas today. With this decision they will have to pay for themselves’, he told NTB news agency when the vote result became clear.


Parliament is now calling on the government to initiate calculation of a fee per kilogram of exported, unprocessed fish, i.e. salmon, rainbow trout and trout. The goal is for the fee to be introduced by the 1st of July next year.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today