Swedish Electronics roars against the chemicals tax

The government's new proposal to increase the tax is receiving strong criticism in Svensk Elektronik's consultation response. Our members are largely small and medium-sized companies and this tax entails a disproportionately large administrative burden, without providing a demonstrably better environment. Instead of increasing the tax, we believe that the tax should be abolished as soon as possible. It is inefficient, cumbersome and harms Swedish competitiveness.

The purpose of the tax is said to be to improve the environment, but it is difficult to demonstrate the environmental effects if you look at it from the seams. The tax can even drift in the exact opposite direction. Since it is the weight of the product that determines which tax is levied, for example, a product with a metal casing receives a higher tax than if it had a plastic casing. Metal is often required in industrial contexts to meet other requirements and metal can be fully recycled. Plastic contains much more unwanted chemicals. This is just one of many aspects of how the tax is ineffective.

Overall, the tax is a bit like ”selling the butter and losing the money.”.

Here are our views in summary:

Instead of raising the tax, we believe that the tax should be abolished as soon as possible. It is inefficient and harms Swedish competitiveness.
Work against hazardous chemicals should take place at the EU level and within the directives and regulations that deal with these issues such as REACH and RoHS.
Before a decision is made to maintain and increase the tax, this decision must be preceded by an impact analysis and an account of the effects that have been achieved so far. The impact analysis that was carried out prior to the introduction of the tax was inadequate, which we, along with many others, have demonstrated.
If the tax is not abolished, we propose the following changes:
- The exemption for private imports through e-commerce is removed.
- The scope is changed to exclude the industrial use of electronics.

You can read the consultation response in its entirety here.

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