With the ongoing debate on the scrapping of the Value Added Tax (VAT) on menstrual hygiene products taxes in the country, the Member of Parliament for the Ada constituency has added her voice saying the total scrap will help the young women in rural areas.
Speaking on the floor of parliament on Tuesday, November 29, Comfort Doyoe Cudjoe emphasized that women in rural areas face several financial difficulties in paying for sanitary pads during their menstrual periods.
To her, it’s the pride of women to menstruate and never their fault as such efforts must be made to relieve women of that financial burden.
For instance, she revealed the plight of a woman with four children within their prime facing such difficulty saying “The woman said that I have four girls who are in their puberty stage and they are menstruating. They cannot use 100 Ghana a month to buy because they cannot afford three square meals for them in a day.”
She argued that eliminating the tax would make sanitary pads more affordable for all women and girls and ease the financial burden of purchasing the product.
Highlighting the impact of high taxes on sanitary pads, she stressed that it negatively affects the health and well-being of young women with limited income.
“When they do not practice proper menstrual hygiene, they contract vagina infections like candidiasis…this one may spread to their uterus and then their womb.”
She therefore urged the government to provide free sanitary pads, similar to the distribution of condoms to prevent sexually transmitted infections.
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin, noted that taxing sanitary pads essentially amounts to taxing a basic need.
He called on all the 275 Members of Parliament to prioritize the call for the removal of taxes on sanitary pads and work towards eliminating such taxes.
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Source: Angelina Riley Hayford/ATLFMNEWS
