Stubborn fuel tax concessions: The case of fisheries in Norway

Abstract

In the context of the abolition of traditional subsidies, this paper discusses the persistence of the major remaining subsidy scheme in Norwegian fisheries: exemption from fuel taxes. This reimbursement scheme stems from the late 1980s, and has persisted since then under different governments. This paper gives the background to this support against theoretical predictions of the subsidy's effects on fishing behaviour and profitability. For 2011, the estimated exempted fuel taxes for the fishing fleet was NOK 999.0 million, amounting to 6.3 per cent of the landed value, against NOK 772.7 million (6.4 per cent of landed value) in 2007. The Norwegian scheme is also discussed in relation to similar arrangements in other countries. The national fishing fleet is heterogeneous with respect to oil consumption in transport and fishing operations. Hence, the effect of the fuel subsidy is different for different fleet components. The implications of abolishing this subsidy for the fishing fleet in general and for different vessel groups, as well as its policy implications, are discussed. 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 1 STUBBORN FUEL TAX CONCESSIONS: THE CASE OF FISHERIES IN NORWAY ABSTRACTIn the context of the abolition of traditional subsidies, this paper discusses the persistence of the major remaining subsidy scheme in Norwegian fisheries: exemption from fuel taxes. This reimbursement scheme stems from the late 1980s, and has persisted since then under different governments. This paper gives the background to this support against theoretical predictions of the subsidy's effects on fishing behaviour and profitability. For 2011, the estimated exempted fuel taxes for the fishing fleet was NOK 999.0 million, amounting to 6.3 per cent of the landed value, against NOK 772.7 million (6.4 per cent of landed value) in 2007. The Norwegian scheme is also discussed in relation to similar arrangements in other countries. The national fishing fleet is heterogeneous with respect to oil consumption in transport and fishing operations. Hence, the effect of the fuel subsidy is different for different fleet components. The implications of abolishing this subsidy for the fishing fleet in general and for different vessel groups, as well as its policy implications, are discussed.

Assessing broad life cycle impacts of daily onboard decision-making, annual strategic planning, and fisheries management in a northeast Atlantic trawl fishery

“…The main part of results in standard LCA impact categories (abiotic resource use and emissionbased impacts such as climate change, eutrophication, and acidification) has been identified to be determined by the onboard use of fuel and refrigerants of fishing vessels (Vázquez-Rowe et al 2012a). In addition, fuel efficiency in liters used per kilo (or value) of landing is an important indicator of the economic performance of many fisheries, especially for demersal trawlers (STECF 2013;Isaksen et al 2015), because it often represents the main variable cost.…”

Profit and Resource Rent in Fisheries

“…However, subsidies were quite important for Norway until about three decades ago. Nowadays the exemptions of environmental taxes, notably fuel taxes, remain (Isaksen, Hermansen, and Flaaten 2015), but since this is the case for most fishing nations, it has not been corrected in the context of table 3. The RR1s of the two countries in table 3 are much the same: 9 and 8% of landed value for Iceland and Norway, respectively.…”

“…quotas (IVQ) and GQs for all vessel groups. Subsidies to the fishing fleet continued to be reduced, and by the mid-1990s the Norwegian fishing fleet was basically free of subsidies (Isaksen, Hermansen, and Flaaten 2015).…”

Green transformation is a boundary object: An analysis of conceptualisation of transformation in Norwegian primary industries

“…The strategy was to be revised in 2015, but no such revisions have been published to date. Until now, the fisheries have through a general refund scheme largely been exempted from the general CO 2 -tax in Norway, but this scheme is becoming more diversified, favouring energy efficiency (see Isaksen et al, 2015).…”