There’s something fishy going on…

The Sindh government has decided to bring the fishing sector including privately-run ponds and fish farms under the tax-net, so that a handsome tax could be added to the provincial exchequer, Pakistan Today has learnt reliably.
Besides, the Sindh’s fisheries department has drafted a bill/law that has been forwarded to the law department for its vetting after which it would be presented before the legislative assembly for approval, well-placed sources told Pakistan Today.
The sources opined that there were thousands of private ponds and fish farms operating in the province, however, the fisheries department had no records available and the sector was ignored in the tax-net. Besides, the fisheries department could not be able to enforce its laws on these fish farms and ponds due to non-existence of any law. The new law will help fisheries department regulate private ponds and fish farms easily, the sources added.
The sources said law experts of the department had prepared a draft of the law which would be moved to the provincial Law department for legal opinion. Later, the bill would be moved to Sindh Assembly Secretariat to table it in session of provincial assembly.
With the new law, the fisheries department would start the registration process of all the private ponds and fish farms operating in the province. As during floods of 2010 and heavy rains of 2011, a large number of private fish farms were damaged but the department could not make proper estimates of losses and could not compensate the fish farmers just because of lack of proper information.
However, after registering of all the private fish farms, the department would calculate losses in case of any disaster in future and fish farmers would be compensated easily in case of any disaster and the same would be brought under legal cover.
There are at least 368 private fish farms established on 16,352 acres of land which were damaged. Similarly, thousands of people suffered losses of about Rs 550 million on account of destruction of poultry farms.
More than 900 private poultry farms were damaged and over 2.5 million birds died or were washed away on these farms due to heavy rains of 2011. But, the Sindh government had not compensated the victimised fish farmers due to non-existence of law, the sources told.