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Julian Manduca
MaltaToday can confirm that some manufacturers and importers have found a way around the eco-tax regulations and have flooded the market with ‘new’ non bio-degradable plastic bags 1cm smaller than the size liable for taxation.
The government is aware of the ‘loophole’ but has not made it public.
The smaller bags have become more popular at the same time the Environment Ministry is sending out flyers to Maltese homes calling on people to “kill plastic before it gets us”.
Contacted by MaltaToday, Environment Minister George Pullicino said he was aware of the situation. Asked why no action had been taken, Pullicino said he was “examining the situation” but that “it is still too early” to take action.
Action would necessitate changing the legal notice that introduced eco-taxation once again.
The manufacturers and importers are doing nothing illegal, however it is abundantly clear that the ‘new’ plastic bags are defeating the scope of eco-taxation which was meant to eliminate or dramatically reduce the use of non-biodegradable plastic.
Parliamentary Secretary for Finance Tonio Fenech was not aware that so many ‘new’ plastic bags were avoiding the eco-contribution, but told MaltaToday he did not expect a lot of revenue from the tax on plastic bags because “we were under the impression that people would stop using them.”
Revenue from eco-taxation is meant to fund Wasteserv’s budget, the company in charge of spearheading Malta’s waste management strategy.
It is mainly grocers and other retail outlets of all kind that have taken to selling in bags 25cm wide as the eco-tax law stipulates that tax is not due on bags smaller than 26cm.
Supermarkets, in their main, have stuck to stronger larger degradable bags and pay the 1c eco-tax passing on a charge of 2 or 3c to the consumer.
The same businesses that supposedly first advised the Minister for Environment to place a tax by weight on plastic bags and then advised a change so that bags are taxed individually have now found a way of avoiding the tax altogether, at least for the very common plastic shopping bags.
The law that changed the eco-tax for plastic bags had stipulated that bags smaller than 26cm in width and 40cm in length be excluded from taxation.
“Government is committed to control usage of plastic bags and encourage the use of alternative materials,” the government leaflet posted in all homes reads, but is it really committed?
MaltaToday also spoke to Robert Abela, the managing director of Traplas, Malta’s largest manufacturer of plastic bags, who said that demand for plastic bags in general was down between 25 and 30 per cent. Abela said the market was responding to demand. He explained that when shops asked for plastic bags of a certain size they were duly supplied and that the size would determine whether eco-tax should be paid or not.
Abela insisted with MaltaToday that government was irresponsible when it said that plastic bags spread dioxins in the air which in turn caused cancer in humans.
Plastic bags do not contain chlorine and therefore cannot produce dioxins as the government has claimed.
Most retail outlets visited by MaltaToday over the past three months are supplying the smaller plastic bags that are not subject to eco-tax.
julian@newsworksltd.com
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