Plastic bags boost state revenue

Cape Town - The plastic bag levy introduced in 2004 in an attempt to contain the scattering of South Africa's so-called "national flower" or "Khayelitsha daisy", has delivered revenue of about R350m for the state coffers.

The Section 21 company that the government established to limit the dumping of plastic shopping bags and promote their recycling, has in the same period received only R94m to perform its task, it would appear from figures in the National Treasury's budget documents.

The figure of R94m includes R30m allocated to the Buyisa-e-Bag company in the current financial year.

In the medium-term expenditure framework R35m was earmarked for Buyisa-e-Bag in the 2010/11 financial year, and R40m for the 2011/12 year.

The levy on plastic bags, which is included in the price consumers pay for the bags in shops, was raised from 3c to 4c a bag. Treasury expects to earn R90m from the levy in the current financial year. In the 2007/08 financial year Treasury received R86.31m from this source, and in the previous year R75.13m.

Critics reckon that, to date, the enterprise has done far too little to promote plastic-bag recycling.

Responding to a parliamentary question by the DA concerning Buyisa-e-Bag's activities, Buyelwa Sonjica, the Minister of Water Affairs and the Environment, last month said that more than R7m had been spent on building eight centres to recycle plastic bags.

As many as 33 clean-up campaigns had been launched at a cost of R1.5m, involving more than 34 000 people in residential areas. Campaigns for empowering the youth had been organised to the tune of R1.65m, involving more than 1 000 young people.

-Sake24