At the recent EPDA Annual Conference, an issue was raised regarding a Hungarian regulation on an environmental fee imposed on plastic sheets (see http://en.apeh.hu/tax_laws). EPDA member János Bendl, Umundum Kft., has further investigated this issue on behalf of EPDA members. The following is a letter that Mr. Bendl has drafted on behalf of EPDA. EPDA will send this to letter to the Hungarian government.
In accordance with Act LXXXV on Environmental Product Charges and Government Decree 343/2011.(XII. 29.), on the execution thereof, in Hungary as of 1 January 2012, an environmental product charge is payable, among others, on products that fall under the Tariff Codes 3919 and 3920. A significant share of the plastic products belonging to the mentioned two tariff codes are neither suitable for packaging purposes, nor for the production of packaging materials.
The mentioned regulations leave two alternatives for the law-abiding producers and distributors of the plastic sheets not suitable for packaging purposes:
- They pay the environmental product charges, putting their competitiveness at risk;
- In accordance with the regulations they prove by significant input that the products are not used for packaging purposes; the burden imposed on the companies threatens again their competitiveness.
In the case of sales to local distributors, the payment of the environmental product charges is unavoidable, although the product is not suitable for packaging purposes.
Based on the above, we propose to amend the mentioned regulations in a way which does not disadvantage the producers and distributors of modern plastic sheets used in many fields of the economy, whereby maintaining the focus on the high significance of environment protection.
