The introduction of an indiscriminate €0.15 tax on plastic bags could push a local manufacturing company out of business.

Robert Abela, director of Traplas, has criticised the tax that does not distinguish between normal, degradable and biodegradable plastic bags.

The plastic bag company had "invested heavily" in technology to manufacture biodegradable carriers after the eco tax targeting non-degradable and degradable bags was introduced in 2005.

However, it never went ahead with manufacturing biodegradable carriers because of the cost and lack of local demand. But the government could have easily increased the attraction of using biodegradable bags and countered the high cost by not taxing them, Mr Abela said.

He lamented that the new tax could spell trouble for the company, which employs about 50 people. "Unless we diversify our production, we might face problems," Mr Abela said, pointing out that the new regime, which comes into force in January, does not give him any breathing space.

"We have about €20,000 of degradable materials on which we will be taxed heavily and we have no time to change our line of production," he said, adding that, at the very least, the government should have given ample time for one to get rid of the raw material.

Longbow Ltd director Ben Farrugia also criticised the indiscriminate tax, calling it "madness", which could lead to cheaper and more environmentally-damaging bags being used. The company has been importing degradable plastic bags for the past nine years.

He said the measure will not go far in curbing people's use of plastic bags, who are likely to go back to their normal use after a few months. This had already happened in Ireland, he insisted.

But a spokesman for the Resources Ministry defended the tax, saying that this sought to instil a culture change for customers to adapt to the re-usable bag.

"This is an essential prerequisite if we are to safeguard our environment. Shops are obliged to sell this product and, therefore, consumers will be more conscious to minimise on the use of this packaging product," he said.

The spokesman said that since the eco tax was originally introduced in 2005, there were numerous discussions with industry but still no switch to the biodegradable option because this remained an expensive alternative.

Worst still, he said, initiatives to introduce a re-usable cloth bag quickly vanished because the plastic bag industry continued to market degradable plastic even when bags had very low percentages of degradability.

The spokesman said the intention was not to ban the product but make people more conscious that the indiscriminate use of plastic bags is an environmental liability.