Plastic bag tax ready for AL discussion in April

The government expects to deliver a single-use plastic bag levy bill to the Legislative Assembly (AL) next month.

The Chief Executive Council will complete discussion of the bill in April. The bill will then be submitted to the AL, according to Secretary for Administration and Justice Sonia Chan, who revealed the information in a meeting with the advisory council of the central district. However, the Secretary did not disclose the specific value of the levy.

A single-use plastic shopping bag charge has been talked about in Macau for over a decade.

Last year, more than 4,700 local residents signed a petition to the government, urging for faster legislation on the single-use plastic bag levy.

The Macao Consumer Council conducted a survey on the topic in 2011, with 70 percent of respondents supporting a charge for single-use plastic bags.

In 2016, the Environmental Protection Bureau’s public consultation showed that a levy bill is widely supported.

Previously, the local government revealed that it expected the charge for a single-use shopping bag would be 50 cents or 1 pataca.

Besides researching a charge for single-use plastic bags, the SAR government is also studying a ban on the import of non-degradable plastic bags.

According to statistics, on average, each Macau resident uses 2.2 single- use plastic bags on a daily basis.

In July 2009, Hong Kong implemented its plastic shopping bag levy scheme.

Mainland China has had a plastic shopping bag levy scheme in place since 2008.  JZ