The grocery chains refuse to remove the entire plastic bag tax

Published 2 November 2024 at 13.00

Economics. The abolition of the tax on plastic bags, which has been highlighted as the Tidö government's biggest political victory so far, has not led to a corresponding reduction in the price of plastic bags. The food chains keep part of the markup – themselves.

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Matpriskollen's CEO Ulf Mazur tells TT that most have only lowered the price by 3 kroner, despite that the abolished tax corresponds to a price reduction of SEK 3.75.

Instead of the intended price reduction, the food chains have converted a large part of the government's tax cut for increased profits.

Mazur points out that the excise tax was SEK 3 excluding VAT when it was introduced in 2025 and that the VAT of 25 percent meant that the shops needed to charge SEK 3.75 to cover the tax levy.

– Now the price is reduced by 3 kroner to the consumer including VAT, so the reduction could probably have been a little bigger. The price should have been reduced by SEK 3.75, he says.

The site has investigated the prices at Lidl, Ica and Coop and basically all of them have lowered the price by only SEK 3.

Today the plastic bag tax is abolished! pic.twitter.com/8Z5yfc3jzN

— The Moderates (@moderaterna) November 1, 2024

The reduction of the plastic bag tax has been highlighted as one of the Moderates' greatest political victories of all time and is one of the very few election promises that the Tidö government has kept so far. But the impact was not as great as the politicians had imagined.