Royalty, business tax hike haunt salmon industry

Kate Casey

Senator Camilo Escalona, President of the Socialist Party and the Senate House Commission is not giving up on his intentions of getting a payback from salmon industry. Just over a year ago Escalona proposed a new bill masked as a territorial use law, and intended to place a Regional tax on salmon producers in order to help finance the maintenance of roadways, ports, water quality and other environmental health factors in Chile’s southern regions. Chile’s mining industry is the only other industry in the county subject to this sort of law. A year has passed and the bill hasn’t gotten very far, but Escalona and his colleagues in favour of the idea have proposed an alternative, which the Treasury Minister Andrés Velasco is currently considering according to La Tercera. The alternative consists in raising the annual tax on salmon farming licenses, which today costs approximately US$ 150 per hectare of surface area. “I’ve spoken with the Treasury Minister on at least three occasions regarding our proposal and he has informed me that it is a viable alternative to increase the salmon sector’s contribution in relation to the volume of growth projected for salmon industry and it subsequent impact upon our southern Regions,” states Escalona.