Official: Rp 200 per Sheet of Plastic Bag Excise
Directorate General of Customs and Excise will apply the plastic bag excise for Rp 200 per sheet. The House of Representatives’ Commission XI, dealing with financial affairs, has cleared the bill. The director of technicalities and excise facility at the Customs and Excise Directorate General, Nirwala Dwi Heryanto, on Wednesday (2/12) said that the excise was the government’s effort to reduce environmental pollution since plastic bags were the least recyclable items. It could also pose as a legal basis for the paid plastic bags policy.
All this time, the policy allows the retailers to charge the customers Rp 200 for a plastic bag. They record the earnings as the plastic excise, counted as the state income. However, the implementation of the policy and the use of collected money are unclear. Meanwhile, in the new regulation, the Directorate General of Customs and Excise will collect the excise directly to the plastic bag producers. The implementation of the excise can generate up to Rp 100 billion this year.