Ecology, Estonia, Financial Services, Legislation, Markets and Companies, Taxation

The objective of the proposal is to motivate individuals to use multiple-use plastic bags or textile bags when carrying their purchases from the stores. According to the draft law, the obligation to pay the excise taxes lies on the retailer that sells the goods subject to excise taxes to consumers.

The excise tax rate proposed is three kroons per plastic bag.

Excise taxes would be imposed only on the plastic bags that are meant for carrying the goods from the point of purchase to consumers’ home. All other plastic bags, e.g. garbage bags and small plastic bags, are not included in the draft law.

The Government estimated that the excise taxes on plastic bags should be included in the Packaging Excise Tax Act. The Government also took the position that the law cannot be implemented from the beginning of next year as the authors of the proposal planned.

The draft law was initiated by the Estonian Greens’ faction, the Reform Party’s faction and by the Pro Patria and Res Publica faction in Riigikogu. Toomas Trapido, a member of the Greens’ faction, stated that the excise tax would be imposed mostly to influence consumers’ choices to use more environmentally friendly options for carrying their goods from stores. “The so-called plastic bag tax is a small, but a clear signal for everyone – either to pay and impose a bigger burden on the nature or to change one’s behaviour only a little and be more friendly towards the nature and towards one’s finances,” he explained.

If the draft law will be approved in the Parliament, plastic bags will cost approximately 4-5 kroons in the stores.