The New Patriotic Party Government intends scrapping the 20 percent luxury tax on imported sanitary pads if its mandate is extended by Ghanaians during the December polls, Vice President, Mahamudu Bawumia has said.
The 20 percent levy exists because sanitary pads are categorized as luxury products per the Ghana Revenue Authority guidelines.
The Vice President said the scrapping of the levy will reduce the cost of imported sanitary pads.
“We will eliminate import duties on sanitary pads to improve health conditions, particularly for girls. It is very important. What we intend doing is to make sure we produce sanitary pads in Ghana until that happens in their numbers, we are going to eliminate import duties to bring down their cost,” he said.
Bawumia made this known when he was giving highlights of the NPP’s manifesto at Cape Coast in the Central Region on Saturday, August 22, 2020.
The Member of Parliament for Kpando in the Volta Region, Della Sowah and other groups had appealed to the government to scrap taxes on imported sanitary pads.
In the MP’s appeal, she argued that some girls are forced to use rags in place of the pads in her constituency, due to the high cost of imported pads.
In line with education, a non-governmental organisation, Happy School Girl project, has also called on the government to provide free sanitary pads as part of the Free Senior High school policy.
