MANGALURU: The department of fisheries has paid Rs 1 crore to banks on behalf of fishermen during 2016-17 for loans obtained by them under interest subvention scheme The state government has provided additional grants of Rs 5.97 crore for this purpose and will be remitted towards the loan accounts of fishermen during the current fiscal, noted Pramod Madhwaraj , minister for fisheries, youth empowerment and sports said on Saturday.Under the scheme to reimburse sales tax on diesel used by fishermen in fishing boats during 2016-17, government has fixed a grant of Rs 100.50 crore. Out of this, Rs 95.52 crore will be available for use to reimburse sales tax component after setting aside funds to be used under the special component plan and Girijan sub-project. Hike in sales tax on diesel and price of diesel since April 2016 means department has to reimburse Rs 9.27 sales tax per litre of diesel sold.With the available grants, department has reimbursed Rs 71.53 crore directly to bank accounts of fishermen. Department has submitted a bill of Rs 23.63 crore to the treasury to enable it reimburse fishermen for October and November respectively, the minister said. Once cleared, it would mean the department has paid Rs 95.23 crore by way of sales tax reimbursement on 1.15-lakh kilo litres of diesel provided to them through the oil marketing companies at fisheries harbor.Stating that the department has sought an additional grant of Rs 33 crore to reimburse fishermen for December, January and February, Pramod said the steep hike in price of diesel and kerosene used by fishermen has resulted in increase in cost of fishing. The fishermen in Karnataka need an average of 1.80-lakh kilo litres of diesel annually entailing outgo of Rs 100 crore and Rs 50 crore for kerosene and department has written to the union government to reimburse the same.

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