Shopping bags in the country's supermarket outlets may be no longer a freebie as a move is well underway to put out feelers before charging for such tote bags.
The Bangladesh Supermarket Owners Association in a recent meeting has decided to run a market study to see the impact of a charge for shopping bags.
A meeting source said the members of the association split over the issue and the committee then decided to assess the market reaction.
The committee is still working on the issue.
According to the source, two members of the association are pushing for charging shoppers for bags in their outlets, while others want to wait for economic depression to go.
When approached, Shwapna, the largest chain superstore, has refused to make any comment on the issue.
However, Ahmed Shoyeb Iqbal, chief operating officer of Meena Bazar, said they were not going to charge for shopping bags anytime soon.
After the assessment of the committee, he said they would decide whether supermarkets would charge for bags or not.
According to Mr Iqbal, shopping bags are not free in super shops across the world. "So, why it should be free in Bangladesh?" he queried.
Tote bags cost Tk 4.0-8.0 each depending on their sizes. "So, it's a huge sum of money if you calculate annually."
"We want customers to reuse the bags and we'll provide eco-friendly, durable bags once we start charging so that they can use bags more than once," cited Mr Iqbal.
However, the Meena Bazar executive admitted that there might be a customer repercussion after imposing charges on bags.
He, however, said customers in the upscale areas would not grudge paying for shopping bags, adding that supermarkets were already at odds over VAT.
"Customers have long been complaining for additional VAT (value-added tax) they have to pay at supermarkets," he mentioned.
VAT is imposed on superstore products. Between 2005 and 2019, the VAT law underwent at least seven amendments, raising VAT to 5.0 per cent from 1.5 per cent.
For a couple of years, the owners' association has been demanding that the government revoke the 'discriminatory' tax system that continues to exempt grocery shops.
However, the government explains that customers at superstores are relatively more solvent than those at grocery shops, so VAT on superstore customers should not be an issue.
To minimise this 'discrimination', the government is likely to pursue unorganised grocery shops to install electronic cash register (ECR) machines.
Currently, there are an estimated 500 supershop outlets of the member companies of the association.
Supermarket owners claim this sector has the potential to generate around Tk 50 billion in revenues annually.
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