Italy’s €450/tonne virgin plastics tax may be postponed until July 2021

LONDON (ICIS)–Italy’s proposed €450/tonne tax on virgin plastic, which is due to come into effect on January 1 2021, may now be postponed until July, Italian website Polimerica said this week.

It reported that the Council of Ministers met on Sunday 18 October to discuss the budget for the financial year 2021, and issued its plans via a release on Sunday evening.

The Italian press suggests that liberal political party Italia Viva requested that the plastics tax be postponed until July, otherwise it would not give its backing to a draft budgetary document. The postponement is most likely due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic which has impacted economies across Europe.

Although some will welcome the postponement, questions about whether the companies will have to pay the tax retroactively remain.

At the time of writing, no official response with regards to the tax had been given by the Italian government.

The tax had already been pushed back from its original implementation date of July 1 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Italy, Spain, the UK and Austria have all proposed taxes on plastics or plastics packaging in 2020.

Additional reporting by Daria Grossi

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