Resource rent taxation could scrape away plans for ocean farms and closed sea cages

by
Aslak Berge

The proposal for a 40 per cent basic interest tax could shake things up so much, many realistic long-term cost-cost scenarios may become unprofitable, warns Ragnar Tveterås.

Monday’s much-talked-about proposal for resource rent tax got a lot of attention during the Sjomat Norge (Norwegian Seafood Federation) Autumn Conference being held this Thursday and Friday at the Thon Bergen Airport Hotel, Norway.

“Socio-economic projects will not be profitable and implemented. This is especially true of capital-intensive projects, such as salmon farming at exposed sites,” said Ragnar Tveterås, professor at the University of Stavanger.

Changes the flag
He has no doubt that socially profitable projects will be moved out of Norway if the tax proposal is implemented.

“A special tax will have negative effects on investments and will result in the loss of working palaces in many districts from Agder to Finnmark,” Tveterås continued.

“We have seen how the site structure has developed, we have seen how the harvest plant structure has developed. The coastal municipalities who think they have little left from facilitate salmon farming have a legitimate case when they say: What’s in it for us?”

“And that’s also where the tax should go,” Tveterås continued.

Stagnation
“This is a wet dream for tax lawyers and accountants. Someone is going to make money here. Good for them,” he said.

“This case is so ragingly crazy, but you have to buy your time,” Tveterås requests to a conference room packed with the audience from the West Norway’s aquaculture companies.

“Norway needs a significantly larger aquaculture industry to replace some of the lapses of petroleum taxes over the next decades,” he pointed out.

The battle now stands for growth or stagnation.

“The proposal does not give growth in aquaculture. But there is something in between zero and 40 per cent that can produce growth, he said.

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