President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu today ratified amendments to the Waste Management Act passed by the Parliament, which exempt the collection of plastic bag fees from those purchasing bags in bulk.

The President's Office stated that President Muizzu ratified the amendment brought by the Parliament to the Waste Management Act last Monday.

Under the previous version of the Waste Management Act, fee collection was exempted for only three types of plastic bags: bags provided or sold by duty-free shops, bags used to hold un-packaged fresh fish, and bin liners specifically sold or issued to hold waste by waste management service providers or other relevant authorities.

However, the amendment brought to the act states that fee collection will also be exempted from packs containing more than 50 plastic bags.

Another change brought to the plastic bag fee collection system involves arranging for fees to be collected on bags issued by entities not registered for GST, while mandating the ministry to formulate a regulation specifying how fees collected in this manner will be handled. Thus, the amendment states that ensuring parties not registered for GST also collect plastic bag fees is a task that must be carried out by the Ministry of Environment.

Under the current state of the Waste Management Act, plastic bag fees had to be collected repeatedly multiple times. In that manner, when shops, tea shops, and restaurants purchase bags in bulk, those establishments also had to pay a fee to wholesalers at the rate of MVR 2 per bag.

Implementation of this change will begin once a regulation specifically dedicated to this under the amendment is formulated by the ministry. A period of one year has been granted to the ministry to draft that regulation.

Because fee collection was repeated multiple times within the bag supply chain, various parties had been expressing concern ever since the act came into effect.

In addition, the amendment brought to the law states that the Environmental Regulatory Authority (ERA) will hold the authority to formulate regulations regarding fining if waste is managed in violation of standards set by the ministry. The amendment also assigns the responsibility of formulating regulations, guidelines, and standards to be followed in providing waste management services to the Utility Regulatory Authority.