Bulgaria has imposed a new ecotax on the production of plastic bags in an effort to limit their use for the good of the environment, the government said Monday.

The new tax, which entered into force on October 1, obliges manufacturers or importers to pay 0.15 leva (0.07 euros, $0.09) for every bag below a certain thinness sold.

The levy, which the government expects to be passed on to customers in shops, will rise to 0.35 leva from 2012, 0.45 leva in 2013 and 0.55 leva in 2014.

Its purpose is to cut the number of thin plastic bags used every year in Bulgaria from the current 1.2 billion, seen as a major source of litter, the environment ministry said, vowing strict checks.

It has already had some success, the Dnevnik newspaper reported Sunday.

"Even if I cannot guarantee that nobody makes them, big producers have definitely stopped production as they have no orders after the imposing of the ecotax," Tsvetanka Todorova from the producers' association told the paper.