plastic bags

The Romanian government won’t scrap the eco-tax charged for plastic bags and whoever said publicly that the tax would be suspended did not have the government’s approval, environment minister Nicolae Nemirschi said Thursday.

The Commission for Public Administration and the Environment with the Chamber of Deputies will ask the Romanian Government to suspend applying for 3-4 months the Emergency Ordinance which taxes plastic bags, to improve the normative act.

Romanian fast moving consumer goods retailers no longer offer free plastic bags to shoppers following the introduction on Jan 1 of an eco tax of 0.2 lei (EUR1=RON4.0720) for these bags.

Romanian environment minister Korodi Attila will propose a law making plastic bags, available free of charge at stores, target for "drastic" taxation. This would get vendors to use alternative bags, made of environmentally friendly materials, for which there will not be any taxes.