New Mowi chief predicts tax plan will be scrapped
THE new chief executive of Mowi has predicted that Norwegian plans for a controversial salmon tax will eventually be rejected.
Ivan Vindheim, who took over the helm from Alf-Helge Aarskog last month, said the proposal would have a devastating effect on salmon farming in Norway and, for this reason, he did not believe politicians would proceed with the main recommendation of a 40 per cent flat tax on profits.
He pointed out that salmon farming was no longer a local activity and future investment would take place where costs were lower. This would only lead to fewer jobs at home.
He warned: ‘Tax is a cost just like any other so future capital will be invested where costs are lower.’
However, fish farming companies have been told that the proposals were not dead despite strong opposition from most of the parties in the ruling coalition government.
Finance minister Siv Jensen said she is not rejecting the idea out of hand and has sent a report to a special government committee for further discussion.
The tax was proposed by an independent group, chaired by economics professor Karen Helene Ulltveit-Moe.
The committee said that as salmon companies used natural marine resources, to which they had been given largely free access, it was only right they should give something back.
Minister Jensen told MPs that she has not yet decided what action to take over the committee’s recommendation, but said it was important to get a wide range of views.
The industry has reacted angrily, with the trade association Seafood Norway saying it could deliver a fatal blow to the sector.
Mowi announced last month that CEO Aarskog, who held the position for 10 years, was standing down.
Vindheim, who has been Mowi’s CFO since 2012, said it would be ‘business as usual’, and he paid tribute to Aarskog who, he said, had delivered the company to him ‘in excellent shape’.
Kristian Ellingsen, group accounting director, has been appointed new CFO of Mowi.