Shoppers in Nairobi to be charged for plastic bags
A supermarket attendant, in Nyeri town, packs goods for a customer. Lax enforcement has left many suburbs and rivers choking with plastic waste. Photo/FILE
What you need to know:
County assembly Bill seeks to set charges based on quality and size of the packaging papers.
The proceeds will go to the county and environmental organisations which collect and dispose of the bags.
The intention of the Bill is to reduce the use of polythene plastic bags. It’s the latest attempt by Kenya and the region to curb their usage.
Nairobi shoppers will pay a fee for using plastic bags to carry goods if a new Bill is signed into law.
The county assembly will set charges depending on the quality and size of plastic bags, further choking households already struggling to make ends meet.
The proceeds will go to the county and environmental organisations which collect and dispose of the bags.
The charges will come into effect 90 days after the Bill becomes law and will bring Nairobi in line with other countries such as Wales.
“No retailer shall make available to consumers any plastic carry bag free of charge. (This is to) encourage their re-use and minimising plastic waste generation,” reads the Bill. This means that the Bill will capture the entire retail chain including supermarkets, large stores, small corner shops and grocery stores.
The inclusion of corner shops and grocery stores will create an accounting nightmare since most of them do not offer receipts. Those found in breach of the law risk a jail term not exceeding one year or a maximum fine of Sh500,000 or both.
In Britain, which is about to put in place a similar law, small corner shops will be excluded.
‘‘My Bill is inclusive and will include even mama mbogas,” said Mr Abdi Hassan, the publisher of the Bill and leader of the minority. “Some members want a total ban of the bags. Amendments will be made once the Bill is introduced in the House,” he added.
The intention of the Bill is to reduce the use of polythene plastic bags. It’s the latest attempt by Kenya and the region to curb their usage.
“The relevant department shall prescribe the price of plastic bags… in order to encourage consumers to use other alternative modes of carrying or packaging commodities,” reads the Bill.
It proposes plastic bags with a minimum thickness of 30 microns. Most of those currently used to package items like sugar and vegetables in estate kiosks are 22 microns. The minimum size allowed has also been set at 8x2 inches, thereby eliminating the smaller bags.
Figures from Wales and Ireland show that taxes have had a dramatic and immediate effect of reducing use of plastics by 80 per cent or more, the BBC reports.
Kenya has previously tried to rein in pollution from polythene materials but lax enforcement has left many suburbs and rivers choking with the waste.
In 2007 the Treasury moved to slap a 120 per cent levy on plastics to protect the environment from degradation. It also proposed a ban on very thin plastic bags.
Protests from traders that the 120 per cent tax would make the plastic bags too expensive forced the parliamentary committee on Trade and Finance to propose introduction of a green tax instead.
The East African Community has been pushing for introduction of a new levy on producers of polythene materials. Kenya had petitioned the Parliament to introduce a levy instead of imposing a blanket ban on polythene bags as Rwanda had proposed.
Kenya opposed the ban on grounds that the multi-billion shilling investments in the sector would be affected, leading to loss of thousands of jobs.
PAYE Tax Calculator
Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
