'Eco taxes' difficult to get in the bag

THE introduction of so-called eco-taxes remains on hold. Environment minister Bernard Flouquet and chief officer Steve Smith have been learning more about the ways Ireland tries to influence consumer behaviour by taxing environmentally-unfriendly products at the point of sale.

But they will not feature in the department's forthcoming waste report because Guernsey does not have the mechanisms such as VAT or a general sales tax in place to implement them quickly and efficiently.

The Environment Department believes the benefits of such taxes have to be weighed up against their cost.

'There has to be an administration in place and that costs money. So any benefits from the taxes have to be compared with those costs and the economic viability,' said Deputy Flouquet.

The British-Irish Council meeting of environment ministers considered the issues surrounding solid waste.

'It was interesting to note that all jurisdictions have similar problems to ourselves and all are applying measures which they believe are necessary for their communities and waste management,' said Deputy Flouquet.

Mr Smith said that Ireland was able to take a lead because of its unique position, compared with the other jurisdictions, of being a single independent state that is part of the EU.

It has introduced a plastic-bag tax at the point of sale and has plans to extend this to chewing gum and plastic bottles.

It is also starting to charge domestic waste by how much people leave out. In Guernsey, refuse collection is paid for via the rates but Jersey does not charge for the service.

Deputy Flouquet said Guernsey would struggle to implement such environmental measures but it was an issue to be resolved by the future taxation strategy.