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.