The imposition of a plastic bag fee, implemented in April of this year, has yielded substantial financial gains for the state. The Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA) reported a collection of MVR 1.2 million in bag tax revenue for the month of May. However, it is worth noting that bag tax revenue slightly decreased to MVR 778,693 million in June.
MIRA’s data reveals that bag tax revenue reached MVR 4.2 million in July of the preceding year. This positive trend continued in August, with a collection of MVR 1.7 million in bag tax revenue. Over the past four months, the government has accumulated a total of MVR 7.9 million in bag tax revenue. This fee, set at MVR 2 per plastic bag, was introduced in April under the provisions of the Waste Management Act.
The Waste Management Act now mandates that purchasers of bags pay a MVR 2 fee for each bag, in addition to the wholesale price of the bags. This adjustment was necessitated by an initial oversight in the legislative process: the Waste Management Act Bill, as presented to Parliament, originally included exemptions for plastic bags containing 50 or more individual bags. However, when the bill was ultimately passed into law, the exemption for bag purchases was omitted. Consequently, amendments to rectify this provision are currently under consideration.
