Vietnam - Plastic bags may avoid green tax

With just a few months to go before the Law on Environmental Tax takes effect on January 1, the debate about whether or not to tax plastic bags has yet to be settled.

The new law makes plastic bags among the seven most heavily taxed items–15-17 per cent, meaning 30,000-50,000 viet nam dong  US$1.4-2.4) per kilogramme–in an effort to stop the use of the environmentally unfriendly product which is clogging up cities, towns, and farm land.

The stiff tax is expected to reduce the use of plastic bags by supermarkets and shopping malls by 40 per cent in five years, a goal set out in the national strategy on solid waste management, which has been approved by the government.

But supermarkets complain that taxing plastic bags will result in unfair competition among themselves without actually making people aware of the importance of decreasing the use of this non-biodegradable product.

When the new law takes effect people will have to pay an additional charge for using plastic bags.

However, despite this and being aware of the negative impacts of plastic bags–which need about 400 years to break down–on the environment, half the people polled in a recent survey by the Ho Chi Minh City Waste Recycling Fund (HCM City-REFU) said they would shop at other supermarkets or shopping centres which offer free plastic bags.

Since 2008, supermarkets, shopping centres, and traditional markets in HCM City have been using around 30 tonnes of plastic bags every day, according to the HCM City-REFU.

With supermarkets giving away the largest number of them, the focus of the programme is on them.

More than 80 per cent of supermarkets, shopping malls, and traditional markets told the survey they would take part in the programme, but the rest said they would only do so if forced.

Do Thuy Hang, deputy director of quality management at HCM City's leading supermarket chain, Sai Gon Co-op, said if a supermarket charged buyers for plastic bags, customers would go to places that offer them free.

"We have a choice of paying the tax [ourselves] to keep our customers," Hang told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, adding that the tax would not help improve people's awareness and the waste from plastic bags would not reduce.

She called for regulating that all supermarkets should charge customers for plastic bags to ensure fair competition.

Some other supermarkets too had the same view.

An estimated 12,000-odd tonnes of plastic bags were used last year and the figure is expected to rise by 8-10 per cent every year.

The new tax is expected to fetch at least 360 billion viet nam dong (US$17.3 million) every year.

Making people aware of the need to bring their own environmentally friendly bags for shopping is necessary, HCM City-REFU director Le Van Khoa said.

The head of the HCM City Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Nguyen Trung Viet, however, said the tax should be imposed since it works in many other countries.

But dissemination should be carried out effectively and all over the country, he said, adding the tax could be introduced and amended later depending on how it worked.

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