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Danish Ministry of Taxation comments on the PVC Information Council view on PVC
First reading of the bill on PVC taxation on 20 January
09-01-2004
The Tax Committee of the Danish Parliament has received a nine pages hearing memorandum on the PVC taxation from the Ministry of Taxation. The aim with the memorandum is among other things to provide the fiscal policy spokesmen with the view of the hearing parties, when the bill on PVC taxation shall undergo first reading in the Danish Parliament on 20 January. Besides in short to describe the content of each single reply, the memorandum describes how the Minister for Taxation is considering the viewpoints provided by the hearing parties. In total twenty stakeholders have provided the Ministry of Taxation with a hearing reply. More than the half of memorandum of the Ministry of Taxation is dedicated to treat the hearing reply provided by the PVC Information Council DK.
The major viewpoint of the PVC Information Council DK hearing reply is that there is no environmental justification of letting exclusively PVC products be subject to taxation. In this respect the PVC Information Council DK hearing reply informs that the council had issued a report in 2001 to shed new light over the latest knowledge on PVC and waste incineration. Based on the report it is showed that the environmentally problematic residues, that are formatted as a consequence of the incineration process by far are owing to other waste fractions than PVC.
In order to comment on the viewpoint of the council the Ministry of the Taxation has forwarded the hearing reply of the council to the Danish Environmental Protection Agency to comment on.
The EPA comments include exactly the conclusions on incineration, that the PVC Information Council DK has put forward. That is, among other things, the fact that 70% of the Danish PVC waste is incinerated on plants, where the PVC waste is only causing an increase of the residues of 5%. However, the Danish EPA argues that PVC in waste increase the risk of corrosion, and there is an increased consumption of water in connection with incineration of chlorine containing waste. According to the EPA both these conditions cause increased expenses for the incineration plants.
In the PVC Information Council DK hearing reply it is put forward that new developments conclude that there is no connection between an increased formation of dioxin and the presence of PVC in the waste. In reply to this the EPA argues in its comments that even though there is a great uncertainty as to which extend the incineration of PVC adds to the formation of increased quantities of dioxins, it is important to work to have the contents of chlorine of the waste made as small as possible. A reduction of the chlorine contents shall be made possible by keeping PVC off the incinerators when possible.
In the hearing memorandum of the Ministry of Taxation the main contents of the environmental programme of the PVC Industry, Vinyl 2010, is described. In this connection the EPA mentions that the raw material manufacturers have a programme for environmental progresses, that the industry has a recycling target for 2010 and that the PVC industry finances various development projects on waste management of PVC.
In its quotation of the Vinyl 2010 programme, however, the Danish EPA notes that the European PVC industry is not intending to phase out the use of lead until 2015. In connection with the lead problem the PVC Information Council DK is being criticized. The EPA finds that it cannot be justified when the council maintain that the use of lead is stopped in Denmark, as it is written in the hearing reply. As long as the statuary order on lead allows the manufacture of recycled PVC with lead stabilizers, the use of lead is not stopped, the EPA says.
In his comments to the hearing memorandum of the Ministry of Taxation, the PVC Information Council DK general manager, Ole Grøndahl Hansen, expresses his satisfaction with the fact that the Danish EPA and the PVC industry have now a common understanding of the fact as to which extend the problematic residues are owing to the PVC waste. “On the background of this knowledge we find it not justified to burden PVC with taxes. The PVC waste is only responsible for a very small quantity of the residues”, Ole Grøndahl Hansen says. “As to the issues formation of dioxin, corrosion and water consumption – which the EPA point out as arguments against PVC in the waste incinerators – we hope that we also here can come to a common understanding, saying that PVC is not the sinner”, the director of the council says. “However, we shall first of all aim at increased recycling”, he concludes.
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