$25 surcharge per scuba dive customer up for reconsideration

The House of Representatives adopted yesterday a Ways and Means Committee report recommending passage of a modified bill imposing an additional $25 surcharge per customer availing of scuba dive services, to generate funds to buy, install, operate and maintain decompression chambers for government healthcare centers on Saipan, Tinian and Rota.

Other members said the $25 fee is too much.

After discussion, the bill’s author, Rep. Roman Benavente (Ind-Saipan), said he will lower the $25 fee.

Vice speaker Frank Dela Cruz (Ind-Saipan), who said the fee is “too steep,” pointed out that the bill wants to charge scuba divers more, less than an hour after the House presented a resolution honoring four scuba divers who saved lives during the Thanksgiving season.

The committee report says it is necessary to equip government health centers with a decompression chamber for the safety of divers.

As tourist destinations, Saipan, Tinian and Rota offer beautiful dive sites.

But the committee also noted that in prior years, funds were appropriated to buy decompression chambers, only for these funds to be reprogrammed for more urgent matters at the time.

Just the same, the committee underscored the need to have decompression chambers at the Commonwealth Health Center on Saipan, the Tinian Health Center and the Rota Health Center.

All treatments of patients requiring a decompression chamber are referred to Guam, the committee said.

The panel added that a decompression chamber can also be used for other medical patients with diabetes and cancer.

The Ways and Means Committee recommended passage of HB 18-72 in the form of House Draft 1, to ensure that funds will go toward buying decompression chambers and clarify the bill’s intents.

Under HD1, all scuba dive shop operators and marine sports concessionaires shall impose an additional $25 surcharge per customer “per week.” The scuba dive operators and concessionaires are supposed to collect, document, and pay the fees collected to the Commonwealth Treasury every quarter.

Seventy-five percent of funds collected will go toward buying decompression chambers, while the remaining 25 percent goes to the general fund.

Back in May when the bill was introduced, some dive operators were wary that the added $25 fee will drive away their customers.

Some of them said if a tourist used to pay $25 or $50 for a scuba dive, he will have to pay $50 or $75 if the bill is signed into law.

There are also dive customers that pay $1,000, for example, for a series of dives for days, and they too will have to pay an additional $25. The impact is different between these two types of customers.