Johannesburg - The National Treasury has bagged R1.1 billion up to August 2014 from the plastic bag shopping levy from the time it was introduced in 2004 but has given a paltry R216 million in funds during that period for recycling activities.
However, the levy is not ring-fenced by the Treasury for this purpose.
It said on Thursday: “All money received by the national government (including all taxes collected) must be deposited into the National Revenue Fund (NRF), as required by section 213 (1) of the Constitution. The NRF is a general fund from which appropriations are made, and there is no earmarking of funds collected.”
The Treasury said the R216 million has been appropriated to the Department of Environmental Affairs for recycling initiatives.
However, the department’s efforts on this have been a debacle.
It is no surprise the Treasury has allocated it this paltry sum.
The levy is collected by the SA Revenue Service from food retailers and is paid to the Treasury.
It was introduced at three cents per bag in 2004 and is currently six cents per bag.
Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene said in a parliamentary reply on September 12: “Given that this is a specific tax (cents per bag), it is necessary to ensure that inflation does not erode the real value of the tax.”
Its targets are plastic bag manufacturers and importers.
On average, food retailers sell each plastic bag at 42 cents.
The Treasury said: “The levy was introduced as a mechanism to manage the problem of plastic bags which ended up as wind-blown litter on fences, trees, the open veld or in waste facilities via normal refuse collection systems.”
Nene said in his reply, given that the NRF is a general fund from which appropriations are made, and there is no earmarking of funds collected, it is not possible to draw a direct link between the amount collected for a specific tax or levy with any specific expenditure.
Nene said initially, the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) intended to ban plastic shopping bags.
However, in order to limit job losses in the plastics industry whilst at the same time reducing the impact of plastic bag pollution and to encourage recycling, a memorandum of agreement was entered into by the government (through DEAT), organised labour and business.
He said overall, the interventions helped to reduce the use of plastic bags from 10 billion, prior to these interventions, down to 4 billion, an estimated reduction of of between 45 percent to 75 percent plastic bag use a year after the interventions were introduced.
However, said Nene, a more recent trend is showing increase in production and imports of plastic bags.
He said a non-profit section 21 company, Buyisa-e-Bag, was established to promote plastic bag recycling but was subsequently deregistered and its employees absorbed into DEAT.
Nhlanhla said the main objectives of Buyisa-e-Bag were to promote waste minimisation, awareness creation in the plastics industry, expand collector networks and support rural collection through small, and medium sized enterprises, job creation and capacity building.
Th company was funded through transfers from the fiscus via the DEAT on the basis of approved business plans that were submitted to the department.
The department shut down Buyisa-e-Bag in 2011 after a review concluded it had failed to meet its objectives.
It was closed down because it had not supported the expansion of collector networks, established rural collection companies, worked with non-governmental organisations to increase capacity in rural areas, or helped to create jobs and “decent work”.
Albi Modise, chief director at DEAT, said at the time the department was looking at various options to advance the implementation of the plastic bag regulations and assist in the reduction of plastic bag litter.
He said the department believed the regulations had been effective in this regard.
However, Buyisa-e-Bag was described by the industry as a dismal failure.
Annabe Pretorius, head of SA Plastics Recycling Organisation, reportedly said: “I don’t think Buyisa-e-Bag has been responsible for the recycling of one plastic bag.”
Modise on Friday asked for a time extension for DEAT to make a response.