5. CHARGES - ZANZIBAR

5.1 Description

The charges that can be levied on the fishery by the fisheries department are set out in the Fisheries Act 1988, and were last revised in July 2000.

Vessel registration

As for the mainland, all vessels are subject to a once off registration fee, but in Zanzibar this can only be sanctioned by the fisheries department. The charge is fixed and does not vary with vessel size.

	Charge basis	Accruing to	Collected via	Charge rate
Any vessel	Once off	Gov. of Zanzibar	FDZ	US$2.0

Vessel licence

Vessels must also pay an annual licence, which for artisanal vessels varies with LOA and type of propulsion, as detailed in Appendix Table 2. Vessels applying to fish in the EEZ are charged a flat rate per GRT.

	Charge basis	Accruing to	Collected via	Charge rate
Artisanal vessel	Annual	Gov. of Zanzibar	FDZ	US$1.0 - 10.0
Sport fishing vessel	Week, month or year			US$6 - 30
EEZ vessel	Annual			US$80/GRT

EEZ licence fees stand to dominate revenues from the fisheries sector. In 2003 the revenue earned from EEZ licences alone will be over 3 times the total revenue collected from the fisheries sector in 2002.

Fisher licence

Fishers must also purchase an annual licence from the fisheries department. This too varies in cost depending upon the size and propulsion of vessel the fisher uses Appendix Table 2.

	Charge basis	Accruing to	Collected via	Charge rate
Artisanal fisher	Annual	Gov. of Zanzibar	FDZ	US$1.5 - 10.0

Export royalty

As on the mainland, exporters of fisheries products must pay a Royalty to the FDZ. In the case of Zanzibar the royalty is calculated on an ad valorem basis, at a fixed rate irrespective of the product.

	Charge basis	Accruing to	Collected via	Charge rate
Export Royalty	Per kilo	Gov. of Zanzibar	FDZ	6% of value

Up until 2003 export royalties were the largest contributor from the fisheries sector, making up (in 2002) over 70 percent of collected revenue.

There is no information available on revenues accruing to village committees.

5.2 Origin, purpose and legal status

*Instrument*	*Origin*	*Purpose*	*Legal status*	*Observations*
Vessel registration fee	· Fisheries Act 1988 · Fisheries Regulations 7/2000, allowing Minister to issue licences, prescribe terms and fees of licensing, require registration and licensing.	Control of vessels operating in the fishery, register of ownership and vessel details.	Rate last revised in 2000. Currently under revision as part of writing of new Fisheries Act, expected to be ratified by first quarter 2004
Annual vessel fishing licence	Idem	Revenue generation (EEZ fisheries); Statistical indicator.	Idem	Potential use in management of both small scale and industrial fisheries - operator "buys into" the resource.
Annual fisher licence	Idem	Statistical indicator.		As above
Export Royalty	Idem	Revenue generation; Resource rent.	Idem	Charged at 6% of total value until 2000, then by value per kilo

5.3 Revenues raised

Detailed information on values remitted form the various fiscal instruments is presented in Appendix Table 11 and summarised in the figures below. The low levels of revenue collection are notable. In 2002 the FDZ collected a little over US$60 000, 60 percent of which was from royalties on seaweed export. The impact of increased sales of EEZ licences in 2003 is evident in Figure 5.

Figure 5 - Collected revenues (Zanzibar)

Figure 6 - Export royalty (Zanzibar)

No information was available on revenues collected at village level (for village government), but based on the same maximum rate of sales tax (fish levy) as the mainland (5 percent), total landing of 22 000 tonnes (Appendix Table 7), an average landed value of US$0.5/kilo and 40 percent coverage, total local revenues are estimated to be around US$220 000 per annum, over 3.5 times that accruing to central government.

Total taxation based on 2002 data is estimated as US$280 000 on product with a landed value of US$11 millions, equivalent to 2.5 percent of landed value.

5.4 Impact of charges on the fishery

Total production data for the artisanal fishery (Appendix Table 7) indicate consistently increasing catches over the past five years, but no data was available as to how effort had developed, and it is therefore not possible to make any judgement as to how charges have influenced effort.

As with mainland Tanzania, the sales of licences in the EEZ fishery has increased dramatically to 78 in 2003 (Appendix Table 10), over twice that of the mainland. This will be partially due to MCS initiatives and also a pro-active stance by the Government of Zanzibar to sell EEZ licences via an appointed agent/broker located abroad. Again, as with the mainland, licence sales is not considered a reliable indicator of effort.

From the previous section, it is apparent that charges made at village level on the fishery are very much greater than those made at the centre. It was reported both in Zanzibar and on the mainland that there is an increasing tendency to focus such charges on fishers from outside of the community (short-term migrants). Depending upon the scale of charges and their significance amongst other production costs, this may encourage more sedentary fishing practises.