The Women Caucus of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Parliament has given the government a month’s ultimatum to return to Parliament and amend the 2024 Budget statement, where it is seeking to impose Import Duties and Value Added Tax (VAT) on imported and locally manufactured sanitary pads, or face their wrath.
According to the NDC women MPs, the imposition of taxes on sanitary pads put undue financial burden on women and adolescent girls, especially those from deprived communities and low-income households, in accessing the hygiene product.
Lack of access to sanitary pads, they noted, comes with its attendant challenges. They cited instances of school absenteeism and where some adolescent girls have been deprived of education as a result of lack of access to the product.
Addressing members of the Parliamentary Press Corps (PPC) at a press conference in Accra on Wednesday, November 29, 2023 the Chairperson of the opposition women MPs, Comfort Doyoe Cudjoe-Gansah, said sanitary pads are very expensive nowadays and imposing taxes will deprive more women and adolescent girls of the product.
“We are just giving the government one month to come back to the House and amend what it put in the Budget Statement, otherwise, we will advise ourselves, because condom is tax-free and condom is not something that you naturally need to get it all cost, but with the sanitary pads our menstrual periods happen biologically as a woman and we see no reason why they [government] should tax our blood. They should stop taxing our blood”, she noted.
She added that, “sanitary pads are not a luxurious product. They are a fundamental necessity for the health and wellbeing of women and adolescent girls. Access to affordable menstrual hygiene products is a basic human right that should not be denied by financial barriers.
“However, the imposition of Import Duties and VAT on these items has created undue burden, making them out of reach for many. These financial barriers directly affect the lives of our girls, especially those from low income households and, therefore, hindering their access to education”.
UNICEF estimates that 1.8 billion women menstruate worldwide. Yet, for some 500 million women and girls, the biological phenomenon becomes a cause for worry every month.
With the price of sanitary products ever-increasing, many are denied a dignified and healthy menstrual process.
NDC MP for Kpando, Della Sowah, commenting on the issue called on men to join the crusade against imposing of taxes on sanitary pads, noting that they are also affected by the action of the government.
The minority women caucus strongly believe that if countries such as Kenya, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Nicaragua among many others, have successfully implemented free sanitary pad policy or zero tax on sanitary pad importation, Ghana could implement same, urging the Minister of Finance to think through where to shore up revenue, instead imposing tax on sanitary tax.
“It is incumbent upon us as a society to ensure that our girls have the necessary support to manage their menstrual health safely and with dignity. Monthly menstrual flow is not an accident but a necessary biological factor that makes every woman a complete woman.
“We cannot have a situation where there is a zero tax on condom and same cannot be said of sanitary pads. Access to essential menstrual products is a right not a privilege”, Cudjoe-Gansah, who is also the Second deputy Minority Whip, noted in her address to the PPC.
By Stephen Odoi-Larbi
