Minister to stick 5c tax on chewing gum sales
Thursday September 23 2004
The cash collected will go towards the massive cost of cleaning more than 500 million tonnes of the sticky gum now clinging to Irish streets.
The detailed plan will be revealed by Environment Minister Martin Cullen in a 100-page report by consultants McIver Consulting, engaged by the Government to examine how to introduce the levies.
The report will also outline plans for levies on polystyrene fast foot wrapping and ATM receipts, but will say these can be avoided by negotiation if the industries involved are prepared to scrap this form of litter.
This idea is for a voluntary code of practice similar to that recently agreed and implemented with the fast food industry in Britain.
The report recommends a range of environmental levies including 10pc of the price of a packet of chewing gum, amounting in most cases to about 5 cents, the Irish Independent learned last night.
The minister is expected to announce that he plans to bring the proposals to Cabinet following a four week period of public consultation.
It would initially raise up to €4m a year based on the current chewing gum sales of more than 80 million packets.
The levy on chewing gum will be collected by the Revenue Commissioners and, if agreed by the Cabinet, will be ringfenced and re-directed to local councils for gumbuster street cleaning machines.
Under the consultants' proposals the clean-up charge would be imposed at the point of sale with the recommended levy incorporated in the price of the product.
Taxpayers pick up a multi-million euro bill every year to remove chewing gum - and it costs more to remove it from our streets that it does to buy.
Dublin City Council removed 180,000 pieces of gum from Grafton Street in one month at a cost of nearly €25,000 - or seven pieces a euro.
The report will show that the costs incurred by the taxpayer in litter management and street cleaning are massive, an estimated €70m a year of which only €2.74m is offset by litter fines.
Chewing gum giants Wrigleys lobbied government ministers in a bid to have the chewing gum tax scrapped insisting it's illegal.
But their concerns on the impact of the clean-up tax - including strong criticism of Mr Cullen's handling of the issue - have been emphatically rejected by the minister.
- Treacy HoganEnvironment Correspondent
