Praising some of the new initiatives announced in the 2018/2019 National Budget, Opposition MP Semesa Karavaki has voiced his concerns regarding the plastic bag policies.

Karavaki is suggesting to completely ban the use of plastic bags instead of increasing it from 10 cents to 20 cents in the next financial year.

He believes the increased levy will not reduce the environmental problems posed by plastic bags.

“We can buy it at 50 cents, we can buy it at even one dollar but what will happen is that the same outcome will be achieved whereby, the used plastic bag will be discarded into the ocean.”

However, Economy Minister, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says a ban will be put in place in due course.

“Two years has been allowed for everybody to be allowed to adjust themselves to the total ban. What we have done as highlighted by the Environment Minister is that people have stocks and we need to make sure that they get rid of their stocks. We need to ensure we generate a culture of people using more reusable bags.”

The plastic bag levy was introduced in the 2017/2018 National Budget for all retail outlets that have point-of-sale registers.

The increase in the levy is aimed to further discourage the use of plastic bags and promote the use of reusable bags.