THE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) told legislators that the proposed single-use plastics tax needs to be harmonized with the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Act to minimize the compliance burden on companies.
Ivy Joyce DP. Padilla, a lawyer with the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), said: “The industry voices out that if we are to regulate single-use plastics… they might find it difficult, considering that it’s a double burden on their part (to also comply with EPR).”
As such, “We wish for the proposed bills to be harmonized with the implementation of the EPR Act,” she said at a House hearing.
Companies with assets exceeding P100 million are required under the 2022 EPR law to cut plastic waste, she said.
Legislation imposing an excise tax on single‑use plastic bags is among 44 priority bills identified by the Legislative‑Executive Development Advisory Council. A measure proposing the levy cleared the House on third reading in 2022 but stalled at the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
Five House bills seeking to impose a P100-per-kilogram excise tax on single-use plastics have been refiled with the lower chamber.
“Some members of the industry feel like they might be double-taxed,” Marikina Rep. Miro S. Quimbo, who heads the House Ways and Means Committee, also told the panel.
“The tax will be imposed at the point when products leave the manufacturing plant. However, some companies also produce their own plastic packaging, which may need further consideration,” he added.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) representative, Rose Ann Bonaobra, said that a lack of clear definitions on the products to be covered by the single-use plastic tax could complicate its implementation.
“Most of the pending House bills contain a general description of single-use plastics… however, for purposes of taxation, regulation and monitoring, a precise statutory definition is indispensable,” she said at the hearing.
“The absence of a clear definition creates operational challenges on the part of the BIR, including difficulty in determining taxable products for excise or environmental taxes and an inconsistent application of tax liability among manufacturers, importers and distributors,” she added.
Ms. Bonaobra said plastic sachets, single-use film packaging, and disposable plastic containers and lids should be covered by the tax.
“These forms of plastic packaging constitute a substantial portion of domestic plastic waste,” she said. “Excluding them… whether inadvertently or due to vague wording of the law, may create an enforcement loophole.” — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio
