The Environmental Service Providers Association on 30th July 2019 participated in a validation workshop to discuss the findings of the GIZ sponsored research to review and update the impact assessment of fiscal measures on plastics in Ghana. 

The research findings presented an update of environmental tax on plastics in Ghana. In 2015 the tax policy unit of the Ministry of Finance with the assistance of GIZ conducted detailed study of Ghana’s plastics tax within 2011-2015

This led to proposed Environmental Fiscal Reform (EFR) Policy as innovative approach to generate revenue to help bridge the huge budget deficit for waste management and other environmental problem. In order to update the research to reflect the current trend in December 2018 the Good Financial Government Programme (GFG), GIZ engaged the service of local consultant Dr. Jonathan Nartey Horgah, A senior lecturer and research fellow from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology to undertake a research building on an initial assessment reported in 2015. Key finding from the research revealed that majority of citizen strongly disagree to the outright ban of plastics this is in tandem with the position of the Plastics manufacturers association as this may lead to loss of jobs. A proposal and recommendation from the research suggested a consideration to reduce the environmental tax rate on plastic from 10% to 5%, while expanding the tax net to cover most plastics imported into the country to yield greater revenue.

In attendance included; Ministry of Sanitation and water resources, GRIPE, Ministry of Local Government, EPA, Customs and AGI