The RB Patel supermarket has collected close to $400,000 from the government’s plastic bag levy initiative in the last year.

The supermarket is a subsidiary of the Fijian Holdings Limited and its Group Chief Executive, Nouzab Fareed says the 10cent levy which was introduced last year, resulted in the reduction of plastic bag sales by 40%.

Fareed says taking heed of the sales trend and the government’s vision, the RB Patel Supermarket will ban the use of plastic bags by the end of next year.

“We might take a step by late next year to totally abandon the use of plastic bags in RB Patel because it is better to be the first to do it before anyone else does it and we have to start at some point and we being a good corporate citizen we don’t mind doing it. We want to start doing it.”

Fareed says the funds collected from the levy has been given to the government.

In the 2018/2019 National Budget, the government increased the plastic bag levy from 10cents to 20cents to further discourage the use of plastic bags and promote the use of reusable bags.