Seafood Exporters Assoication of India (SEAI) Kerala chapter Jose Thomas said here that the imposition of the cess was effective from January 26, 1986, and despite umpteen representations to the Government, nothing had come of it, forcing the exporters to resort to an agitation. Daily loss in foreign exchange owing to the strike, is estimated to be about Rs 5 crore. He said that of the Rs 1,200 crore worth of exports annually, the share of cess would be Rs 12 crore. A good chunk of the seafood caught by fishermen outside the state is brought here for processing. Around 40 per cent of the commodity is brought from outside. In such a situation, it was unjust on the part of the government to impose a cess on the turnover, he added.

The issue has been raging for over 18 years, and on several occasions exporters threatened to go on strike. But the situation had reached a point of no-return and the token strike would be till Jan 12, Mr Thomas said. Exporters charge the state government with discrimination as of the nine maritime states, this cess has been imposed only in Kerala.

This has been one of the main reasons, for many of the processing units migrating to other states. Kerala has 120 exporting units and 800 ancilliaries. Mr Thomas said exporters were already paying for other welfare schemes like ESI, Provident Fund, and a general labour welfare fund.

He charged the government with initiating revenue recovery proceedings, for the assessment arrears calculated unilaterally based on the export figures collected for the customs.