Double taxation fears raised if plastics tax added to EPR law

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.

- Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio

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.