Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed says he cannot support lowering the fee being taken for plastic bags after the price of plastic bags skyrocketed once the government started taking the fee earlier this month.
Since last Tuesday every business activity operating in the Maldives are required to charge MVR 2 as a Plastic Bag Fee for each plastic bag sold or provide free of charge to customers at the point of sale.
With the fee affecting all businesses, the price of plastic bags has skyrocketed in the last few days with a bundle of 100 plastic bags now being sold for MVR 200.
The government had said that only the parliament can now avail the concerns of the public by bringing about Amendments to the Waste Management Act.
While the Amendment was on the agenda for today's session, Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed expressed his lack of support to lower the fee on plastic bags.
In a message to the official WhatsApp group of the Parliament, Nasheed said that the fee was installed knowing that the price of plastic bags would soar.
Criticizing the government's policies, Nasheed said that work to reduce the amount of plastic used should not be halted.
Nasheed said that it is upsetting for MDP to see the government waver and falter in its policies. Noting that there were no targets or goals and that leadership was going in front of issues and taking things head on.
