Despite higher fish catches last year, state income from fishing declined considerably due primarily to the introduction of new fishing regulations as well as to unrealized fishing projects.

According to a recent report from the Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Ministry, non-tax revenue in the form of fees from seawater catches dropped by 44.6 percent last year to Rp 112.5 billion (US$12.5 million), from Rp 203.4 billion a year earlier.

Last year's revenue also missed the government's target of Rp 200 billion.

The decline was not in line with last year's higher seawater fishing catches, which according to the report soared by 9.5 percent to 4.94 million tons, with huge fishing vessels above 30 gross tons (GT) accounting for more than 50 percent of the catches.

Analysts blamed the decline on the introduction of a 2006 ministerial decree on fishing businesses, which required all foreign fishing vessels to have Indonesian registration in order to be able to operate on Indonesian waters.

Due to the decree, foreign fishing vessels that used to pay their fees in U.S. dollars are now required to pay in rupiah because of their new status as Indonesian vessels.

The disparity in the currency exchange rate is the main cause of the decline in the fees.

Director general of fish catches and licenses Ali Supardan told The Jakarta Post recently the decline was also attributable to unrealized projects by companies which had already received licenses to operate.

"There are a lot of causes, but the most notable one is because some fishing companies are not realizing their operations. Some of the companies have not even purchased any vessels yet," said Ali.

Ali said the ministry had targeted non-tax revenue from seawater fishing this year to increase by more than Rp 200 billion from an expected fish catch of 5.34 million tons.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, has a potential seawater catch of 6.4 million tons annually.

Some 55 percent of the seawater catch is destined for export, especially to Thailand, the Philippines, China and Malaysia.

Indonesia's fish consumption per capita remains low at only 27.89 kilograms per year.

According to the ministry, there are currently 590,610 fishing vessels operating in Indonesian waters, with only 1 percent of the vessels above 30GT, while the remaining 99 percent are smaller vessels owned by traditional fishermen.

The ministry report also shows that last year, the average annual income for local fishermen reached only Rp 5.75 million, up by 4.08 percent from 2006.

Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest economy, is estimated to suffer around US$3.2 billion in losses each year from poaching of its maritime resources by syndicates from Thailand, China and the Philippines, according to the ministry.

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