Gov't To Collect On Plastic Levy

When responding to comments raised by Members of Parliament (MPs) of his Ministry’s proposed budget estimates for the financial year 2020-2021, Matsheka explained that government initially introduced the levy in order to reduce the use of plastic bags on account of environmental concerns. Government has not collected plastic levy funds from businesses since its introduction in 2007. Parliament passed the plastic bag amendment to the Waste Management Act in August 2006 and the new law was implemented the following year. However, he said there was a challenge in that the government did not have the resources to collect the levy from the retailers themselves.

“We have tried before to find a way of collecting that levy because that was the intention, but unfortunately at the time of enacting the law, it wasn’t included,” he said. He said they are in the process of collecting money as part of increasing government revenue.