The Environment Minister announced on Monday that the levy would be introduced from April 2013.
Multi-use carrier bags will be exempt from the fee until April 2014, when it will be doubled.
Although some stores across the regions already charge for plastic bags, the announcement marks the first levy in Northern Ireland.
It is hoped the charge will discourage the use of plastic bags and make multi-use carriers more popular.
Alex Attwood said: "There is no doubt that carrier bags are a scourge on the environment.
"A proposed 10 pence levy on single use carrier bags and lower cost reusable carrier bags can bring about significant environmental improvement," he said.
The lower fee is designed to allow people to adjust to the charge, but there are some fears the levy is another way of making consumers pay out.
"It's another tax on the consumer," said Rowan Black of Greens Food Market in Lisburn.
"We're here to retail not to collect another tax on behalf of the government."
While Mr Black agreed with the environmental aspect of the levy, he said some people in NI "will have to be educated on the reuse of plastic bags.
"Some retailers have already been doing it and I think consumers will get used to it over time."
The scheme is to be rolled out from Londonderry, where up to ten civil servant posts will be located.
Shoppers in Wales and the Republic of Ireland are already paying a levy for their plastic bags, of five pence and €0.22 respectively.
But retail analyst Donald McFetridge described the levy as "outrageous" and could cost the average family £156 in 2013.
He said the need to keep items which could taste or scent other products separate means that figure could rise.
Mr McFetridge said questioning each buyer on whether or not they need a plastic bag, and how many also slows down customer service and could mean longer queues at the checkout.
"What, at first, looks like 5p - a throwaway headline price turns out to be an extremely expensive outlay particularly for families on lower incomes," he said.
"When I first did the sums, I thought I'd got it wrong and even reached for my calculator to verify that I hadn't got the decimal point in the wrong place."
The Green Party says it "broadly welcomes" the levy but added that further steps are needed to improve the region's environmental standards.
Stephen Agnew MLA said: "We don't want this to be just another excuse to impose a tax.
"It must be about changing attitudes towards waste and any revenue raised should be invested in major environmental initiatives such as the Green New Deal.
"We don't want a plastic bag levy to be a burden on local retailers and we hope the public will play their part by taking long-life re-usable bags when they go shopping in order to cut the amount of plastic going into landfill and the harmful environmental impacts of plastic bag production."
However the Northern Ireland Independent Retail Trade Association has expressed concern at the Environment Ministers proposals for a Plastic Bag Tax.
And Glyn Roberts of the Northern Ireland Independent Retail Traders Association said the levy would add to the "burden of red tape" for small shops.
"It's unclear if it is intended to discourage plastic bag use or if it is a revenue raiser. It has to do one or the other - it can't do both.
"The Minister also needs to highlight the projected cost of this new 'enforcement centre' based in Derry and how much this Plastic Bag Tax will cost," he said.
"NIIRTA very much wants to work with Minister Attwood on this issue to ensure we achieve the objective of reducing plastic bag usage and will be seeking an urgent meeting with him."