30 Mar 2017

Plastic levy has never been implemented by government and therefore government has never put up any measures in place to collect the levy, Minister of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism, Mr Tshekedi Khama has said. Mr Khama was responding to a question in parliament from Gaborone North MP, Mr Haskins Nkaigwa. Currently, Mr Khama said what was being collected by retailers from the shoppers was the money which they charged for selling their plastic bags. “Therefore, there is no income accrued to government from sale of plastic bags. We are now in the process of instituting the plastic carrier bag of less than 24 microns ban,” he said. Mr Nkaigwa had asked Minister Khama to state the relevance and benefits of plastic levy to government, what is being done to collect the levy from retailers, whether there were any plans to discontinue the levy by retailers and how much income had been made annually through sale of plastics by retailers. ENDS