Promoting Environmental Protection
68. As I have mentioned in my previous Budgets, we need to impose 孄reen?taxes in accordance with the Polluter Pays principle. The Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works will introduce the Product Eco-responsibility Bill into this Council later in the year to provide a legal framework for producer responsibility schemes. The products to be regulated under the schemes will include tyres and plastic bags. The Environment, Transport and Works Bureau will levy a fee on tyres and require the industry to be responsible for their recovery and recycling. As for plastic bags, the Bureau intends in the longer term to introduce legislation prohibiting their free distribution and to levy a tax to deter their use. It will consult the industry and the public extensively on the relevant legislative proposals. In the interim, the Bureau will agree a plastic bag reduction target with major supermarket chains and implement a pilot scheme.
69. Hybrid vehicles produce fewer emissions than petrol-only vehicles. When further options are available in the market, the Government will consider using such vehicles itself more extensively and introducing measures to promote their use by the public. Separately, I propose to exempt electric vehicles from first registration tax for a further three years up to 31 March 2009.
