Following a plan to levy excise duty on imports, giving local producers a fighting opportunity to resume production, the Kenyan government is on a backpedaling mission against its own campaign against plastic bags.
The Finance Bill 2023, which is currently before the National Assembly, contains the proposal.
The proposed law exempts locally produced plastics from excise tax while charging importers for “articles of plastic of tariff heading 3923.30.00 and 3923.90.90.”
If the idea is passed into law as it stands, it will expand the manufacturing of local plastics, making them more affordable and competitive, which will create jobs.
The government has made significant investments in conservation, but even as this occurs, rising manufacture of less expensive plastics may exacerbate environmental pollution worries.
“The locally produced plastics will be competitive, affordable and will lead to an increase of its consumption. But this proposal goes against the government’s agenda of discouraging the use of plastics to reduce pollution,” PwC says in its analysis of the Finance Bill.
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Making them more affordable could undermine Kenya’s attempts to eradicate single-use plastics within its borders. Kenya has established itself as a global leader in the fight against plastic pollution.
The current excise tax rate is 10% and it applies to “plastic articles of tariff headings 3923.30.00 and 3923.90.90.”
The proposal in the Bill, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Limited, a local audit firm, will be a welcome relief because it protects local producers even if it conflicts with the government’s environmental conservation effort, which calls for the banning of plastics.
