Saeima has submitted for consideration to the commissions amendments to the Packaging Law, by which it is planned to specify the definition of the deposit fee, the term for repayment of the deposit fee and the procedure for registration of packers.
–
–
Content will continue after the ad
Advertising
–
According to the drafters of the law in the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development (MEPRD), the deposit packer transfers a fee to the deposit system operator for each packaging unit in which the beverage is placed on the market. In its turn, the deposit system operator shall reimburse the deposit fee for the collected used beverage deposit packaging to the seller of the packaging or the operator of the packaging acceptance point or the sorted waste collection area.
Consequently, this fee is initially included in the cash flow of the deposit system when the beverage is placed on the market in a deposit package, and not when the end-user pays for the deposit package at the time of purchase of the beverage.
The current definition of the deposit fee does not correspond to the cash flow of the deposit system, therefore it is planned to reword the definition of the deposit fee, providing that the deposit fee is an amount of money paid as security. Within the meaning of the draft law, the deposit fee is not equated to the value of the package.
As explained State Environmental Service (VVD), in order to obtain more complete data on the number of packers and the volumes of packaging generated by packers, it is necessary to abandon the packer register and the annual reports of packers.
The SES explains that not all packers are registered in the packer register, only a small proportion of registered packers submit an annual report on the amount of packaging generated and the amount managed, and it is practically impossible to identify packers who are required to report.
Therefore, the submitted data are not reliable, they may overlap with the data submitted by the packaging operator. In addition, the flow of packaging is not traceable, the justification of the draft law states.
When implementing the changes, the SES would obtain both the number of packers and the sold volumes from the data provided by the packaging managers, thus packers would not be obliged to register separately with the SES and submit annual reports on the generated packaging and managed used packaging.
The data should be traceable and duplication of volumes should be ruled out.
It has already been reported that in October 2020, the government approved the rules of the beverage packaging deposit system. Deposit system It will start operating in Latvia on February 1, 2022.
In the tender, the SES decided to entrust the deposit system for beverage packaging to the “Deposit packaging operator” for a period of seven years. In total, it is planned to install 800 to 1000 tare receiving machines or taromats in Latvia.
The company “Deposit packaging operator” was registered in June 2020, and its share capital is 124,500 euros, according to “Firmas.lv” information. The owners of the company are “Beer and Beverage Packaging Union” (18.07%), “Coca-Cola HBC Latvia” (18.07%), “Cēsu alus” (12.05%), “Cido grupa” (12.05 %), PET Baltija (12.05%), Aldaris (12.05%) and the Latvian Retailers ‘Association (9.64%) and the Latvian Brewers’ Union (6.02%).
–
