14 Feb 2023

Parliament has heard that the Ministry of Environment and Tourism had, in 2021, entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) for the latter to collect plastic levy on behalf of government.

Responding to a question in Parliament on Monday, Minister Phildah Kereng indicated that the collection of the plastic levy was regulated by the Statutory Instrument No. 15 of 2021, Control of Goods, Prices and other Charges on Plastic Carrier Bags and Flat Bags Levy regulations.

She said the regulation restricted consumption or production of plastic carrier bags and flat bags through a levy on the importation, manufacturing and distribution of plastic carrier bags and flat bags.

“My ministry does not have any plans to barn non-essential plastic, instead we support more sustainable approaches such as circular economy and plastic value chain development, which will not only deal with plastic pollution problems, but also create green jobs,” she said.

Minister Kereng said it was envisaged that the plastic levy fund would be used to support activities that create value products from recycling of plastic and development of alternative products that can be used instead of non-essential plastic.

Member of Parliament for Selebi Phikwe West, Mr Kgoberego Nkawana, had wanted to appreciate progress as well as process put in place to collect the plastic levy and if there were any plans to ban the use of non-essential plastic. ENDS