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The UK Government has proposed to introduce legislation to increase the plastic packaging tax (PPT) rate with effect from 1 April 2024.
The announcement was included under the government’s Autumn Finance Bill 2023, which was released on 22 November.
As per the government’s proposal, the PPT will increase to £217.85 ($272.55) per tonne, in line with the UK’s CPI, from 1 April 2024.
During the initial year of its launch in the financial year 2022-23 (FY2022-2023), the rate of the tax was £200 per tonne. It was later increased to £210.82 per tonne for FY2023-2024, starting from 1 April 2023.
According to the UK HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) update, the new rates will be applicable for all the plastic packaging produced in the UK as well as imported into the country on or after 1 April 2024.
The HMRC policy paper stated that this increase in the rate of PPT is in compliance with the CPI, which helps maintain the value of price incentives for using recycled plastic.
It will also be in line with the government’s environmental targets.
“To ensure the PPT continues to incentivise the use of recycled plastic in packaging, the government will publish an evaluation plan by the end of the year and gather further evidence to inform the future trajectory of the rate and recycled plastic content threshold,” the government’s Autumn Finance Bill statement added.
In the near future, the government is further considering plans to launch an escalator to the rate of PPT, as well as for the minimum recycled plastic threshold.
The UK first introduced the PPT on 1 April 2022.
The tax aims to deliver economic incentives for using recycled plastic in packaging, which can also help in increasing the overall rates of plastic waste collection and recycling.
It also supports the government’s commitment to eliminate avoidable plastic waste by 2042.
In August 2023, the HMRC released its first PPT statistics, which showed that the department collected £276m in PPT revenue during FY2022-2023.