For a while now, a burning issue has consumed me. This is the mystery that concerns the fee that supermarkets and all good businesses in Mauritius charge their valued customers for the use of a plastic bag to carry their goods. The measure itself - charge people for plastic bags to act as a deterrent for customers to waste plastic and thus save the environment - is respectable. What is perhaps not too admirable is how the figure of Rs 1.15 per plastic bag has been worked out.

Now, forgive me if I am mistaken, but since when did a poor little plastic bag cost Rs 1.15? Fired up with the desire to solve this great mystery, I armed myself with a calculator and a pen and rung one of the plastic manufacturers in Mauritius and posed as a firm trying to order bags for the year.

I was told that to order say 10 000 bags ? in itself a conservative figure for big food chains in Mauritius, but let?s just use that figure for argument?s sake, - would cost about Rs 4,000. Now, let?s do the arithmetic, shall we? This is just 40 cents per bag. By selling the said bag at Rs 1.15, the net difference between the cost and the price is 288%! A ridiculous margin.

<B>?I am all for it!?

Now, as mentioned above, the charge itself to help the environment is necessary and productive. If the said charge is fully passed on to the government and the money is used for tackling environmental issues, I am all for it - something needed to be done about the increasing problem of plastic disposal. However, the charge should not become a fundraising exercise. Also it should not only be consumers that are levied by the charge. Why can?t the fee be proportionately paid by the customer, the business unit and the plastic manufacturer?Is the general public the only ones that need to protect the environment or is this an issue for everybody?

Another thing before I let you get on with your lives, most big commercial units actually have their logos printed on the bags. Why should we pay to sport their brands? If we are paying, they need to give us a plain plastic bag. If it has their logo, it needs to be free. Quite simple.

It would not take a rocket scientist to demonstrate that the difference of 288% between cost and price is excessive. The plasticity of it all is a quasi-lunacy, if you asked me?

Reaz GHANTY