Steeper tax fails to stem use of plastic bags

DESPITE the war waged on plastic bags, the purchase of single-use packets continues to grow.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni announced during his Budget speech on Wednesday that the tax levy on plastic bags had more than doubled from last year’s 12 cents to 25c.

“We remain extremely concerned about plastic bags throughout the length and breadth of our country,” he said.

The price increase will take effect in April.

Budget documents revealed that while progress was being made to reduce plastic pollution, it remained a significant problem, particularly for marine life, as an estimated 12.7 million tons of plastic littered the world’s oceans.

The National Treasury said a review of the levy would be undertaken, including to clarify the treatment of compostable bags.

Treasury added it would consult role players to possibly extend the current levy on plastic bags to all single-use plastics, such as straws.

The government implemented the levy in 2004 as a way to combat the growing pollution problem.

The levy launched at a rate of 3c a bag on some types of plastic shopping bags and was subsequently increased to 4c a bag from April 2009 and then 6c a bag from April 2013.

According to tax statistics from the SA Revenue Services (Sars), in the financial year of 2012/13, R151 million was received, in 2013/14 it collected R169m, it increased to R175m in 2014/15 and in 2015/16 Sars collected R183m. In 2016/17 it raised R232m and in 2017/18, R241m was received. In the past financial year it received R300m.

That was a total of about R1.45 billion over the years, with over 15 billion single-use plastic bags still being purchased during the same time frame.

Sars, in a statement, said that the levy was collected from local manufacturers through the submission of monthly accounts and payments upon clearance of locally manufactured plastic bags.

In addition, it was collected from importers through the submission of import declarations and payments at the time of clearance of such imported plastic bags for use in the country.

The revenue collected from the plastic bag levy by Sars was deposited into the National Revenue Fund, similar to other tax revenues.

But several major local retailers, including Woolworths, Food Lover’s Market and Pick n Pay, have started to phase out single-use plastic in their operations, with some stores no longer offering plastic bags.