Task force to crack down on fishing trawlers using ‘green diesel’
A police task force is set to go after fishing trawlers illegally using cheaper diesel, in order to keep Thailand out of a European Union blacklist.
At a press conference on Thursday, police revealed they would tackle the problem of fishing trawlers buying cheaper "green diesel" to fill their tanks. Green diesel is normal diesel added with green colour to make it different from normal diesel.
Green diesel is priced at Bt6 per litre lower than normal diesel price, under a governmental subsidy to help out the fishing industry. The government spends around Bt4 billion each year to subsidise the cost of green diesel.
Deputy police chief Pol General Roy Ingkhaphairote said suppression or misuse of green diesel will keep Thailand out of the watchful eyes of the EU, which had previously lowered Thailand in its IUU (Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing) ranking.
Fishing trawlers entitled to green diesel must be registered with the Fishery Department and the National Fisheries Association of Thailand (NFAT). NFAT-certified vessels are issued with codes, but unregistered trawlers often buy green diesel using codes issued to scrapped or invalid vessels - buy green diesel.
As a result of a Yellow Card warning issued in 2015 by the EU under the IUU scheme, a governmental overhaul and registration of the entire trawler fleet followed, resulting in the total number of vessels using green diesel reducing from 10,459 to 8,445 last year, Roy said.
The subsidy for green diesel, which can be purchased and filled in vessels at 51 tankers, allotted is Bt471,717 per year per vessel. Authorities later found that despite a drop in the number of vessels, the subsidy remained high, he added.
The subsidy for and provision of green diesel which had not been reduced despite a lesser number of NFAT-certified vessels had prompted a recent World Trade Organization query over how effective government measures were to make the entire green diesel practical or transparent.
In order to reduce overfishing under IUU, Thailand needs to handle the green diesel provision through good control and management, otherwise, WTO would require Thailand to stop subsidising green diesel, which would badly affect the entire fishery industry, Roy said.
At a Cabinet meeting on November 23 last year, the WTO was informed that Thailand will ensure good control and management of the green diesel scheme.
The announcement prompted a governmental collaboration initiated by the Excise Department, which led to an integrated operation of this police task force that was unveiled on Thursday, which is led by Child, Woman Protection and Anti-Human Trafficking and Fishery Division, Roy said.
There was a raid on a trawler last July, which led to an arrest after the vessel was found filling its tank at several tankers wrongly using codes belonging to scrapped vessels.
Alerts on misuse of green diesel or complaints about violation of women's, children's and human rights can now be reported to www.humantrafficking.police.go.th; https://www.facebook.com/TICAC2016 หรือ LineOA: @HUMANTRAFFICKTH หรือ TWITTER: @safe_dek, in addition to the division's hotline at 1599.
