GRTU plastic bags proposal criticised by manufacturers

Plastic bag manufacturers criticised the proposal that plastic bags should be treated as a normal stock item.

This proposal was made by the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises, GRTU.

The manufacturers said that should this proposal be adopted, customers would not only have to pay the eco contribution being imposed by the government but also the actual price of the bag, their own profit margin and value added tax.

This would also mean that manufacturers and importers would have to start including the eco-contribution to retailers as part of their invoice. As a result, the government would have to be paid for this contribution even before the bags are bought by consumers.

They said that when the government introduced a two cents contribution, plastic bags were imported from other European countries and then sold to retailers without the eco-contribution, to the disadvantage of manufacturers. Retailers used to buy a small amount of plastic bags from local manufacturers to have a convenient smokescreen if checks were carried out by environment inspectors.

The manufacturers said that if the GRTU really wished to safeguard the environment, it should support the measure as announced in the budget and not thwart it so as to make it unenforceable, unfair to manufacturers and unjust on customers.