GRTU asks police to probe plastic bag claims
The Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises - GRTU has written to the Police Commissioner asking him to investigate the serious allegations made by Robert Abela, a spokesman for plastic bag manufacturers.
The police, the GRTU said, should ask Mr Abela to submit any information he had of tax evasion and smuggling of plastic bags.
Mr Abela, on behalf of the manufacturers, said on Friday that when the government had introduced the €0.02 contribution on plastic bags in 2005 these were imported from other European countries and then sold to retailers without the eco contribution being paid, 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, he also said. The GRTU said these were serious and irresponsible allegations, which it strongly objected to.
It said it supported the government's initiative to heavily curtail the use of plastic bags because this was causing unnecessary damage to the environment at a cost which retailers could no longer sustain.
The GRTU urged retailers to support the new system and avoid supporting any private initiative that will distort the objective of the new €0.15 eco tax on plastic bags.
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philip pace
Jan 8th 2009, 08:36
Instead of endorsing the Govt initiative to heavily curtail the use of plastic bags because this was causing unnecessary damage to the environment , the GRTU should have checked with their European colleagues on how this works out in their respective countries and should have provided a key solution to this problem.
Are the GRTU ready to accept the fact that here in Malta we have to pay the exhoribant fee,price,tax (call it what you like) of 0.15c for a bag measuring some 25 x 32 cms while for example in Belgium (yes I keep on harping about this) you can pay 0.01c or 0.03c or even 0.05c and in some places nothing for a bag that is between 5 to 6 times larger than the local one?
In the past years I agreed with the GRTU on many different issues but I believe that on this issue the GRTU has got it completely wrong and is miles away from the real reason behind this.
This Maltese bag shall be the world's most expensive bag, no doubt about it!
Charles Sammut
Jan 7th 2009, 14:58
Bio-degradable plastic bags disintegrate very fast once exposed to the elements or buried in landfills. They take about 75 days to disintegrate compared to plastic bottles which can take over 100 years.
They can call it eco-tax but it is simply just another tax. It will achieve nothing because we will have to buy garbage bags instead.
lgalea
Jan 7th 2009, 13:16
How about imposing a tax on the millions upon millions plastic bottles being dumped in our environment Gonzipn?
Or are you afraid of the eu?
Steve Rogers
Jan 7th 2009, 11:41
What environment inspectors? MEPA has only a handful of inspectors who have to meet with all the environmental obligations on this island. They do not have time to go store to store inspecting plastic bags!
Apparantly someone (GRTU?) are sending people labelled as "environmental inspectors". According to the EPA, section 25, environmental inspectors are appointed by the MINISTER and must carry identification cards signed by the Minister - which must be shown. Anyone else is an imposter!
H Dempster
Jan 7th 2009, 10:35
Why all this cryng out loud about damage to the enviroment being caused by plastic bags. What about the great amount of plastic empty bottles one see on our island. Dont these damage our enviroment?