A tax on plastic bags has been proposed in the proposed state budget for 2022.
Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer presented the 2022 state budget to the People’s Majlis on Sunday, revealing that proposals for other ways to increase state revenue next year have been compiled according to promises of government to the people. As such, one of the ways to increase state revenue has been proposed as collecting tax on plastic bags.
The move goes hand in hand with the Environment Department’s single-use plastics disposal plan that was compiled in 2020, which enacts a tax on a variety of single-use plastics, including plastic bags as a market-based instrument, must be taxed.
According to the plan, a fee of two MVR will be levied on each plastic bag, regardless of its size.
The tax on plastic bags will be levied from June 2022.
The 2022 state budget estimates that a total of MVR 47.7 million will be insured as revenue from plastic bag taxes.
Other ways to increase state revenues for 2022 include leasing new islands for resort development, expanding real estate tourism as well as selling land reclaimed through government spending to private parties.
In proposing the budget, Minister Ameer revealed that some of the new revenue measures proposed for next year were also initially included in this year’s budget, but were delayed due to several challenges.
New ways in which state revenues can be increased are expected to bring MVR 727 million to the budget.
The revenue expected to be generated from the expansion of real estate tourism is MVR 231 million, while the rental of islands for resort development is expected to bring in MVR 300 million.
In addition, the Minister predicts that revenues of MVR 148 million will be generated from the sale of land reclaimed through government spending to private parties.
Total revenue of MVR 24.3 billion is forecast for 2022, including taxes and subsidies.
A state budget of 36.9 billion MVR was proposed Sunday by the minister.
