Fuel price hike has become another blow to over one lakh fishermen in Bhola, who are already in trouble for poor netting of hilsa after the end of fishing ban in the Bay two weeks ago.
After the announcement of hike in diesel price on Friday night, many fishermen abstained from going to the sea for fishing since Saturday morning due to the increased cost of fishing trawler, resulting in poor supply of fish in the wholesale fish markets of the district.
Bhola District Fisheries Officer Molla Emdadullah told UNB that the fishermen will suffer due to the fuel price hike.
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Fishermen said now they cannot catch sufficient hilsa in the rivers and the sea.
With the netting of only two or four hilsa a day, it has become difficult for them to bear the expenses and now increased cost of fuel pushed up the expenses, they said.
A medium sized fishing trawler needs fuel worth Tk 3,000-4,000 a day and in return fishermen can catch fish worth Tk 1,500-2,000, they said.
Visiting Tulatuli fish ghat in sadar upazila the correspondent found many fishermen kept their trawlers on the river banks instead of going to the sea and were worrying about their survival in this situation.
Fisherman Aminul said he bought 10 liters of diesel at Tk 850 on Friday afternoon and went for fishing in the river. But when he returned in the morning, he could sell fish worth only Tk 500. “At the same time, when I went to buy diesel, it became Tk 155 per litre.”
According to Bhola Fisheries Office, there are 1,44,000 registered fishermen in Bhola district. Among them, 64,000 fishermen go to the sea for fishing. However, apart from the registered ones, there are about a few thousand more fishermen in the district.
Yunus, a fish wholesaler, said he buys fish from 10 to 12 trawlers. Half of the trawlers stopped going to rivers and sea for fishing as they barely get fish. “Meanwhile, not a single trawler has gone to the river since Saturday morning due to hike in diesel price.”
The government hiked the price of fuel by a big margin on Friday.
Diesel price has been increased by Tk 34 to Tk 114 per litre while octane price hiked by Tk 46 to Tk 135 and petrol by Tk 44 to Tk 130.
Earlier, in November last year, the government increased the price of diesel and kerosene by Tk 15 to Tk 80 per litre. As a result, the bus fare was disproportionately increased by around 27 per cent and the launch fare by 35 per cent.
