Welsh tax proposals criticised by bag manufacturers
Strong opposition from manufacturers has greeted a Welsh scheme to introduce a charge on carrier bags from 2011
Environment Minister, Jane Davidson, said that draft regulations indicating how money for the scheme will be charged and allocated would be published next spring. However, the Carrier Bag Consortium has strongly criticised decision and said the voluntary code was already working well.
The Minister was described as being "behind the game", and, ignoring the evidence of two years of research by the Scottish Parliament. The research proved that carrier bag taxes will generate more waste, not less, as retailers turn to heavier impact alternatives and that materials currently used to manufacture carrier bags use minimal resources.
A spokeperson said, "This is a punitive political tax on the people of Wales at a time when they can least afford it. It will affect lower income groups, depress the retail economy and create more environmental damage. This decision is based on ignorance, not evidence."
The onus of managing the scheme will fall upon retailers and businesses under Davidson's proposed regulations,and businesses, who will be responsible for collecting money and, directing the net earnings from the scheme into their own environmental schemes. She said, "I have long said that carrier bags represent a waste of resources and they are an iconic symbol of the throwaway society that we now seem to live in."
Excluded from the charge will be primary packaging for meat and fish used for hygiene reasons,together with primary bags used for the sale or supply of medicines.
The news comes just days after the government of Northern Ireland ruled out similar charges on shoppers for bags.
