Plastic bag manufacturers’ reactions to GRTU position
As manufacturers of plastic bags, we would like to refer to the position adopted by GRTU with regard to the question of plastic bags.
GRTU while supporting Government’s efforts to safeguard the environment is now telling retailers that they should treat plastic bags like a normal stock item meaning that their customers will now not only have to pay the eco contribution being imposed by Government but also the actual price of the bag, their own profit margin and VAT! So much for GRTU encouraging retailers to be customer friendly!
What is even far worse is that if the GRTU proposals had, God forbid, to be accepted by Government, it would mean that manufacturers and importers begin to include the eco-contribution to retailers as part of their invoice – which in turn means paying Government for the said contribution even before the bags are actually bought by consumers.
Such a system would clearly place manufacturers at an unfair advantage in comparison to importers for the simple reason that manufacturers would not normally accept orders at below the level of 10,000 bags and in this sense this is one item that cannot be considered like any other which a shop simply places alongside other stock items on its shelving.
In any case it is clear that when the Minister of Finance proposed the levying of a 15 Euro cent contribution on each plastic bag and that this be done at point of sale by retailers, Government was doing this precisely because in the former system where a 2 Euro cent contribution was already applicable, the system went haywire for the simple reason that there were importers who brought in plastic bags from other European countries (abusing of the ‘freedom of movement’ principle) and then selling them to retailers without the eco-contribution. What many retailers then did was to buy a small amount of plastic bags from local manufacturers in order to have a convenient smokescreen just in case environment inspectors came to their shop to check if their bags had or not eco tax paid on them.
If such a system of rampant abuse was developed to defray a 2 Euro cent contribution, one can only imagine what would happen to an identical system which is now pegged to a 15 Euro cent contribution.
The truth is that GRTU’s proposals would lead to the same abuse which is what must have driven Government in the first place to change the system not merely by increasing the level of eco tax that is payable but also to make the new contribution chargeable as a specific billing item – making the new system far more transparent and enforceable than the former one that was simply over laden with abuse to be effective and to reach its environmental goals.
If GRTU really wishes to safeguard the environment, it should support the Government measure AS ANNOUNCED in the Budget and not thwart it in such a manner as to make it unenforceable, unfair as between manufacturers and importers, as well as unjust for customers – all on the flimsy excuse that retailers cannot even do the slightest change to the way they are used to doing business!
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