This “tax” is in the bag.

The City Council on Thursday is expected to approve a controversial bill that would put at least a 5-cent fee on plastic and paper shopping bags.

“I expect it to be the closest vote on the council this term, but I do believe we now have the votes to pass it,” co-sponsor Brad Lander (D-Brooklyn) said after the bill cleared a Sanitation Committee vote on Wednesday.

The councilman and other backers of the three-year bill, such as co-sponsor Margaret Chin (D-Manhattan), say the fee would reduce 60 to 90 percent of the more than 9.3 billion plastic bags New Yorkers throw away annually by promoting the use of reusable bags.

With Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito last week endorsing the bill, it now appears to have at least 26 supporters, the majority needed on the 51-person council.

Councilman Steve Matteo (R-Staten Island), who voted against the bill passing through the Sanitation Committee, called the fee a “tax” that “nickels and dimes” New Yorkers — to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

The fee is not a true tax because no revenue goes back to the city. Instead, it is collected and pocketed by retailers.

Exemptions to the fee would include people on food stamps as well as those using bags at restaurants and for medication.