The youth organization for the conservative Progress Party (FpU) has become the latest to bash its own government’s proposed tax on plastic bags. FpU leader Atle Simonsen calls the tax “dumb,” and is urging the government to “just drop it.”
The tax has already set off controversy and uncertainty, but is due to take effect in mid-March as part of the two government coalition parties’ state budget negotations. No one will accept credit or blame for the tax, but Finance Minister Siv Jensen of the Progress Party has had to fend off most of the responsibility for it.
“If you’re first going to impose some sort of tax for the sake of the environment, a tax on plastic bags is probably the dumbest you can choose,” Simonsen told newspaper Aftenposten. He claims, as have others, that plastic bags are recirculated and used as garbage bags, and thinks the government should cancel it.
“No one wants this tax, not the stores, and not the parties,” Simonsen said. “Can’t we just drop it then?”
newsinenglish.no staff