What’s the Catch? A Review of the Fiscal Treatments of Fisheries in Sub-Saharan Africa
| Published date | 01 June 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/10704965231152827 |
| Author | Giovanni Occhiali |
| Date | 01 June 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
The Journal of Environment &
Development
2023, Vol. 32(2) 192–217
© The Author(s) 2023
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/10704965231152827
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What’s the Catch?
A Review of the Fiscal
Treatments of Fisheries in
Sub-Saharan Africa
Giovanni Occhiali
1
Abstract
Virtually no attention has been directed towards how tax policies shape fisheries
development in Sub-Saharan Africa and to their contribution to government revenue.
This is despite abundant evidence of fish stock depletion in the continent, and a
longstanding interest by economists and marine scientists in the role of government
regulation of fisheries. To help starting this discussion, the article provides an overview
of the theoretical underpinning of fisheries taxation and of selected experiences of
high-income countries. Following a presentation of fisheries economic contribution in
Sub-Saharan Africa, the main debates on the fiscal treatment of fisheries are covered:
Prioritising their welfare or wealth contribution; their co-management between local
and central government; fishing agreements with distant water fishing nations; and the
role of subsidies. The review shows that while fisheries revenue contribution is likely
limited in the short run, fiscal policies can be central in promoting the sector sustainable
development.
Keywords
Fisheries, Sub-Saharan Africa, taxation
Introduction
Many low-income countries (LICs)
1
in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) struggle to increase
their domestic revenue mobilisation, a necessary step to achieve sustainable economic
1
International Centre for Tax and Development & Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, UK
Corresponding Author:
Giovanni Occhiali, International Centre for Tax and Development, Institute of Development Studies,
Brighton BN1 9RE, UK.
Email: g.occhiali@ids.ac.uk
development. The role of fiscal policies as buffer in time of crisis was further high-
lighted by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, which also contributed to increase the strain
on already stretched public finances. During the coming recovery, governments of LICs
will be looking for new sources of revenue. However, it will not be easy to individuate
them, as many structural characteristics of SSA economies makes it complex to in-
dividuate taxable productive activities (Moore & Prichard, 2020).
A potential avenue for LICs to raise more revenue would be the development of
fiscal policies targeting the production of environmental goods or climate ‘bads’(World
Bank, 2019). In addition to an increased availability of domestic revenue, such policies
will contribute to a more sustainable management of natural resources, reducing future
impacts from their overexploitation and from climate change (World Bank, 2019).
While much of the debate is focussing on carbon taxes (World Bank, 2019;OECD,
2021), forestry taxation has also seen a resurgence of interest (World Bank, 2021). One
sector whose revenue potential has so far received limited scrutiny is fisheries.
However, given that up to 25.4 million people are employed in fisheries across Africa
(FAO, 2020), it seems important to understand if fiscal policies can play a role in
increasing the sustainable development of the sector and its contribution to public
revenue.
The taxation and regulation of fisheries in high-income countries (HICs) has been a
subject of academic analysis since the mid-1950s, when economists questioned how
their common-property nature could affect their optimal exploitation (Gordon, 1954;
Scott, 1955). Attention towards the same issue in LICs seemed to emerge only fol-
lowing the establishment of exclusive economic zones (EEZs) during the third United
Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (Neiland, 2004). Since then, fisheries’
developmental role has received quite some attention, although the focus was placed
more on their contribution to poverty alleviation and food security (Neiland, 2004;
B´
en´
e et al., 2003;B´
en´
e et al., 2009;B´
en´
e et al., 2010;B´
en´
e et al., 2016) than on their
potential for economic growth and revenue mobilisation (Cunningham et al., 2009). In
fact, whether fisheries developmental role was best conceived as that of a source of
economic wealth or as that of a social safety net constituted an important academic
debate (B´
en´
e et al., 2010;Cunningham et al., 2009;Nunan, 2014).
The reasons for the relative lack of attention to fisheries fiscal contribution are
multiple. First, even in HICs, fisheries’specific taxes are usually conceived more as a
mean to ensure their optimal exploitation than as a way to mobilise public revenue. In
fact, fisheries need to exhibit a rent before warranting for specific taxes, and they
generally do not show any as long as they are over-exploited, as most of those in LICs
are (FAO,2020;Gunn laugsson et al., 2018;Gunnlaugsson & Agnarsson, 2019). Before
the emergence of said rents, it is generally assumed that resources extracted specifically
from the fishing industry through licensing or fees will be redirected towards the
implementation of fisheries management policies. Given how costly and complex the
latter are, even in many HICs cases, para-fiscal revenue from the sector is not enough to
cover for the whole of its management cost (Arnason et al., 2000). That is, in the vast
majority of HICs cases, fisheries contribute to revenue mobilisation through the same
general tax handles of other industries, and not through industry-specific charges.
Occhiali 193
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