Plastic bag levy: Money for nothing

[The_Right_Honourable_Brit]

Not exactly a surprise considering what party we have "leading" our country

Consumers have forked out more than R100-million to the government from the compulsory plastic bag tax - imposed three years ago to fund a national recycling programme - but to date not a single bag has been recycled from this lucrative fund.

The bulk of the money has gone straight into government coffers.

The government's 3c tax on every plastic carrier bag manufactured or imported into the country is built into the price - from 15c to 21c - that shoppers pay for a bag at the till. The tax was imposed on the manufacturing industry with the intention that the money collected would be used to set up a national recycling programme, which would both clean up the environment and create thousands of jobs.
* * *

And although consumers have been paying for carrier bags since May 2003, the South African Revenue Service started collecting the 3c tax only in mid-2004. At the end of the 2004/05 financial year, Sars had collected R41 214 000 from the plastic bag tax and in 2005/06 it collected R61 385 000. Sars collected no plastic bag tax for the 2003/04 financial year. It is not clear where the money from the tax went to in the initial year.
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Since 2005, Environment Affairs has got just R18-million of the R102-million plastic bag levy back, which has been used to set up a Section 21 company, called Buyisa-e-Bag, to create and manage the recycling programme. But the company has been battling with red tape, which has meant that although 11 administrative and managerial posts were filled late last year and early this year, not one recycling depot has been established.

Source: IOL

 

[GavinMannion]

Personally I think the bag tax was a very good idea.

Yeah it would be better if they used the money for something but you won't believe the difference this tax made to my local park. There used to be bags flying all over the place and it was a real mess. Now it's clean... I have no issue paying for the bags at all..

 

[killadoob]

umm i think this

i go shopping spend 600 rand a week on my weekly shopping

does 3 rand for bags really make a difference in my life?

my g/f has a friend and this friends parents are loaded to the max

so my g/f goes shopping with them only to find they dont buy plastic bags instead they lug the 2k worth of goodies from the car into the house hahaha

some ppl i just dont know

 

[Omac]

Yeah it would be better if they used the money for something but you won't believe the difference this tax made to my local park. There used to be bags flying all over the place and it was a real mess. Now it's clean... I have no issue paying for the bags at all..

Same can be said for the N2 at Umgababa on the KZN south coast. A vast improvment.

I try to remember to carry bags with me when I go grocery shopping.

I see it from the point of reducing the amount of litter rather that funding projects (read: government) that will not solve the litter problem.

 

[bekdik]

So we are quite happy to drop millions into some unaccountable black hole?

R41 million isn't small change ...

 

[bwana]

This is bollocks - that money was to establish a decent recycling program that is sorely needed in this country and what happens . . nada.

 

[schitz011]

Personally I think that the stores should pay for the bags themselves... After all, some stores give you bags for free.

Granted the plastic flower seems to have made a dissapearance which is good.

Going slightly off topic, if 1c coins are no longer in circulation why are prices still R9.99 etc? If you pay cash it gest rounded off, but CC and DB users still pay for a these 'anomloies' Why not have it like in AUS where prices are R9.95 as also like us the 1c coin is no longer?

 

[BTTB]

Flipping Annoying

This is what I think.

People should be more prepared when they go shopping.
1. Boot Lining
2. Your own bags, basket. (Pick n Pay has the material green bags that are quite suitable for this exercise)

In my own business I am sick and tired of the public's attitude Re Plastic Bags.
When we charge them for a bag they look at you as though you are robbing them.
And more than once a customer has walked out the door when told he/she needs to pay for plastic, claiming that a similar business doesn't charge them etc.
So I lose a sale, alienate a customer, or both, to be legal, but nobody is monitoring the situation and nobody cares.
Look at KFC. Do they charge for bags? They couldn't be bothered, but nobody does anything about it.

The whole thing is quite annoying.
Probably because the Government imposes something on us without a full set of instructions and then we sit with the issues and they are nowhere to be seen or heard.

No point in having rules if nobody monitors them.

 

[Claymore]

so my g/f goes shopping with them only to find they dont buy plastic bags instead they lug the 2k worth of goodies from the car into the house hahaha

R2K? But that's only a couple of shopping baskets of groceries...

 

[habari]

This is what I think.
....
No point in having rules if nobody monitors them.

My wife and I were discussing the same thing on the phone the other day as I was driving to the bar to have a few pints and a quick smoke or two.

Is it illegal for companies to give their customers bags and simply absorb the cost of them?

 

[chiskop]

Going slightly off topic, if 1c coins are no longer in circulation why are prices still R9.99 etc? If you pay cash it gest rounded off, but CC and DB users still pay for a these 'anomloies' Why not have it like in AUS where prices are R9.95 as also like us the 1c coin is no longer?

Going further OT, why is it that Woolworths, P'nP, Checkers and everyone that you can think of, round down to the nearest 5c; but Telkom carry over the remainder each month?

I pay by direct deposit anyway, so it doesn't change anything for me, but seeing that little note at the bottom of my bill each month just grinds me off.

 

[vespax]

This is an outrage. What are we going to do about it? We need heads to roll as they are stealing our money with these extra taxes!!!!

Oh right, nothing will get done and the execs in the Sec21 will get paid at the end of the month.

And I will still use the local recycle center that is not funded by government for all my eco-consumer needs.

 

[Vrotappel]

Actually the above no longer surprises me. It has become the norm in this country.

 

[killadoob]

guys we live in a corrupt country nothing is doing to change that and no-one is going to change that

just be thankful they havent done a rob mugabe on us

 

[OhGats]

Apparently the reason that prices are still reflected as R9.99 is that the cashier is then forced to open the till and register the sale instead of pocketing the money if it were R10.00.
As for the grand plastic bag scam... some fat cat is scoring money for jam as usual, and I bet nobody has asked the guy in parliment who came up with this idea what is going on. It's the usual story in sunny SA, nobody is accountable.

 

[stoke]

@BTTB : Well .. if nobody's monitoring the bags, give them away for free.

 

[Syndyre]

Plenty of major chains e.g. KFC as you said, Edgars, CNA etc. give away bags for free so I doubt it can be illegal to do so.

 

[mac_mac74]

"It is not clear where the money from the tax went to in the initial year."


A couple new Merc's

 

[mac_mac74]

I beleive SAR's has done an exceptional job, its just a pity that the spenders dont do an exceptional job.

 

[martin]

Just chiming in to agree that I don't really care how the money is spent, the tax has made a huge difference already. I hardly ever see plastic bags littering the area where I stay any more and that's good enough for me.