The Selangor state government has no intention of dictating how retailers use the 20 sen collected for each plastic bag with regard to the “no plastic bag” campaign, said Selangor state executive councillor Elizabeth Wong.

"I don't think the state wants to collect the money. We are not RoS (Registrar of Societies). We don't want to tell them 'you must give (your money) to this (cause)'.

"We asked them to do their own accounting, pick their own corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes," she told reporters when attending an event at Subang Skypark Airport.

She added that retailers who have been collecting 20 sen per plastic bag once a week since 2010, already have their own preferable type of CSR programmes.

When pointed out that other countries and Penang, which run a similar programme, have collected the money and channelled it to certain CSR programmes, Wong replied: "(That doesn't) mean that we should follow Penang."

The state government has expanded its "no plastic bag" policy from one day a week to everyday statewide beginning this year.

There were concerns raised from among the politicians and civil society if the plastic bag charges collected from the consumer would profit the retailers who kept the money for themselves.

Previously, Urban Well-being, Housing and Local Government Minister Noh Omar had questioned where the money went to.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, who expressed his support and mulled to make this a national policy, suggested the state government to come out with a ruling to regulate how the money would be used.

"I sent the minister a text message to thank him for his support. I also informed the minister that Selangor has a different ruling, which we have implemented for the past six years," said Wong.

"He is an environment minister who only wants the money to go to environment. I told him the money was used in different types of campaigns," she said.

Wong also clarified a remark made by Selangor Menteri Besar Mohamed Azmin Ali who instructed her to explain the concern.

"In the last state executive council meeting (held) yesterday, he told me that he didn't say that.

"He told me that he informed the media I had reported to the state executive council on the result of the feedback of the campaign. He said (we should) continue and asked me to explain to the media," said Wong.