One World... Think naturally - June 27, 2006

Eco contribution exemption/refund mechanism - exemption vs refunds

While the Eco-Contribution Act envisages a scenario whereby both exemptions from paying the eco contribution and refunds of the latter, could be operated, the eco-contribution commission, which was established to advise the government on the matter, had recommended a framework focused mostly on refunds. In its report the Eco Contribution Commission concluded that a framework based on refunds as opposed to exemptions would be more appropriate and this change should result in a better audit trail for the whole chain. The Eco Contribution Commission considered that such a system would reward those companies with higher percentages of recovered material from waste.

As such, while the exemptions scenario is not excluded, the rest of this document is focused on the design of a refund mechanism, particularly a partial refund system, ideally in the form of a credit to be offset against future payments and not refund paid out.