According to Fisheries and Oceans Minister Marianne Sivertsen Næss (Ap), the amount of NOK 4.695 billion is the largest since the Aquaculture Fund was established in 2015. The record sum is due to high prices at the auction of farming permits.
– Today the money comes back to the coastal communities instead of large parts being sent out of the country as dividends, says Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum (Sp) in a press release.
As last year and the year before that, it is the Trønder island municipalities of Frøya and Nærøysund that receive the most payments from the fund. Frøya gets just over NOK 153 million, and Nærøysund gets just over NOK 152 million.
Frøya is also the municipality that loses the most per inhabitant from the government’s new revenue system for municipalities.
At the bottom of the list is Surnadal municipality in Nordmøre in Møre og Romsdal, which receives close to NOK 790,000 from the fund.
Of the county municipalities, Vestland and Nordland receive the most, while Agder receives the least.
The fisheries minister sends a nod to the government’s maligned salmon tax.
– The government has always said that the host municipalities should come out better after we introduced land rent tax on aquaculture. The result is that the municipalities get more money to offer welfare services for their residents, she says.
The aquaculture fund distributes municipalities and county councils’ share of the income from the aquaculture industry. The money comes mainly from the production tax that the farming companies pay, as well as income from the sale of new licences.
This year’s payment will probably take place during October.
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