Outstanding payments owed to fishers as of Friday for catch bought by the Maldives Industrial Fisheries Company (MIFCO) have been cleared, President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu has revealed.
"With the payments made today, payments for all fish caught by fishermen until last Friday have been made and the backlog for fishermen has been entirely cleared," President Muizzu wrote in a post shared on X last night.
Before payments resumed last month, fishermen said they had not been paid since December. The government said it inherited a backlog of MVR 250 million.
The failure to settle payments for fish catch has been a longstanding concern of fishers. President Muizzu's pledge was to make payments within 48 hours of weighing the catch.
Arrangements for settling payments within 48 hours will be made after clearing the backlog, the President said.
In line with the current government's policy to solve problems in the fisheries industry, MIFCO was reverted from a State Trading Organization (STO) subsidiary to a separate 100 percent state-owned company.
The fish purchasing price was raised to MVR 25 per kilo on September 16, 2023 between the two rounds of the presidential election. The current government called the hike “politically motivated” and told fishermen that MIFCO could not afford to buy at that rate. The price was reduced to MVR 20 per kilo with effect on February 12, 2024.
The government assured that the fish purchasing price will not fall below MVR 20.
