Many fishermen who borrowed money from banks to build boats under Decree 67/2014/ND-CP of the Government encountered difficulties due to long-term debt and inability to pay.
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| Mr. Chau Van Nho's ship (Phuoc Tinh commune, Long Dien district) built according to Decree 67 has been on shore since 2020. |
Fishermen in debt, sued
Mr. Nguyen Van Thuyet (Phuoc Hung commune, Long Dien district) borrowed 9.3 billion VND from the bank in 2016 (paid in 10 years) to build a fishing boat BV-96329-TS with a capacity of more than 800CV according to Decree 67 of the Government. In the first three years, he also tried to pay 80 million VND/quarter in interest and 1 billion VND in principal. But the fishing grounds became increasingly depleted, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and gasoline prices increased sharply, causing his subsequent trips to the sea to continuously suffer losses, the boat was ineffective, and his family had to sell land to repay the bank. From 2020 until now, he has been unable to repay the debt, was put on the bank's bad debt list, and was sued in court on August 26, 2022.
Meanwhile, Mr. Chau Van Nho (Phuoc Tinh commune, Long Dien district) has a steel-hulled logistics service ship, transporting goods at sea (buying and selling seafood, fuel, fresh water and ice) built according to Decree 67. The ship is 55m long, has a capacity of 2,000 tons of cargo, and has been operating since 2017. "I borrowed more than 33 billion VND from Agribank to build this ship. It has been operating for 2 years until the end of 2019, but the ship is not allowed to transport gasoline and oil, but only ice and seafood," said Mr. Nho.
This license change has caused Mr. Nho's family business to continuously suffer losses. Mr. Nho has kept the ship ashore since 2020 because he did not have the investment costs to go to sea and sold all 2 dredgers and 1 excavator to pay off the debt for this "ship 67" but it was still not enough. His family currently owes the bank 29 billion VND. "The pressure of having to pay the bank debt along with the cost of renting a mooring place for the ship, workers to look after and maintain the ship has caused my family to fall into debt," Mr. Nho said.
Agribank has restructured and extended Mr. Nho's debt 6 times, converted it to bad debt from November 22, 2021 and filed a lawsuit on August 24, 2022. To have a debt repayment plan, Mr. Nho submitted a petition to the authorities for consideration and added the ship's function of transporting fuel and goods at sea, and allowed to dock at commercial ports to have the opportunity to operate the vehicle, earn income to support his family and repay the bank debt.
Solving difficulties for fishermen
According to statistics from the State Bank of Vietnam, Ba Ria-Vung Tau branch, up to now, there are 69 ships in the province (10 logistics service ships, 58 fishing ships and 1 upgraded ship) borrowing capital under Decree 67. The total amount disbursed is more than VND 1,017 billion. To date, lending banks have collected VND 210 billion in debt. However, 45 bad debt loans are at risk of losing capital with outstanding debt of VND 675,359 billion, accounting for 82.62% of the outstanding debt of the program. Of which, 19 fishing ships built under Decree 67 are operating at a standstill, ineffectively, and unable to repay principal and interest to banks as committed.
Banks have also taken many measures to urge debt collection from ship owners. At the same time, they have considered restructuring the debt repayment period for 24 ships. However, the loans that have been transferred to overdue debt and bad debt in the province are still increasing. In particular, 29/69 ships are operating but are slow and unwilling to cooperate with banks to repay their debts. Therefore, 4 commercial banks in the province have filed lawsuits against 27 loans of 24 ship owners with bad debt balance of more than 360 billion VND.
According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Decree 67 is considered a synchronous policy system, demonstrating the Government's determination to support fishermen in exploiting seafood offshore, contributing to the development of the marine economy and protecting the sovereignty of the sea and islands. However, according to Ms. Pham Thi Na, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, after a period of implementation, many ships have not operated effectively due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, high gasoline prices, depleted fishing grounds, reduced seafood prices, and loss of revenue and losses at sea. Some ships have had to stay ashore, making it difficult to repay debts to banks according to signed contracts...
To overcome the difficulties, the Department has proposed that the Government have policies to restructure debt, extend debt, support maintenance and repair; insurance policies, and change ship owners to resolve bad debt loans. At the same time, Decree 67 is amended to allow logistics service ships to transport oil and fuel for offshore fishing vessels to continue operating and be able to repay debts to banks as committed.
Article and photos: NGUYEN MINH
| According to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien, implementing the Government's direction, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is taking the lead in amending Decree 67. Currently, there is a third draft and is continuing to seek opinions from ministries, branches and localities to organize workshops to assess difficulties and obstacles, and at the same time propose solutions. These include debt restructuring and policies on changing ship owners to resolve bad debt loans for newly built fishing vessels under Decree 67. |
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