Bottled water companies say they’re being unfairly targeted by political parties who want to charge a levy on water.
A water tax has become a hot political issue.
Source: 1 NEWS A water tax has become a hot political issues after the Green Party announced this week they want to charge companies who sell or export bottled water – the Government and Labour are looking at the option too.
But Nelson-based Kiwi water company E’stel Water, which bottles 1 million litres of water each year, says having to pay a tax on every litre it sells would be disastrous.
"It’s going to crush the water industry," chief executive Andrew Strang said.
"We don’t believe we could survive through it."
"We are at risk of losing what is an abundant fresh water resource in New Zealand," Greens co-leader James Shaw said.
"Putting a price on it values it and also encourages companies to be more efficient on the use of that resource."
But the industry says if water bottling companies have to pay for the 28 million litres of water they use a year, then farmers, manufacturers and orchardists should have to too since they also profit from using New Zealand water.
"In the first two minutes of this conversation, the Huka Falls would have provided enough water to go out of New Zealand, for the water bottlers – just two minutes."