The Member of Parliament for the Ketu North constituency in the Volta Region, Abla Dzifa Gomashie is calling on the government to scrap all taxes on sanitary products to make them cheap and accessible to help girls during their menstrual cycle.
She bemoaned the consequences of high taxes on sanitary towels, which she said have dragged many girls into transactional sex in order to get access to them.
“It is somebody’s life and it affects their daily life. Make it cheap, make it accessible. Some of these girls out of immaturity and a need that they don’t know how to deal with, are having transactional sex because a man is providing a simple sanitary towel for them.”
Pressure is mounting on the government to scrap taxes on sanitary pads.
The group says the 12.5 percent VAT and the 20 percent import tax on sanitary pads have increased the prices of the item, making it impossible for women who represent 51 percent of Ghana’s population to afford them.
The Speaker of Parliament also directed the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta not to present the 2024 budget with a tax component on sanitary pads.
The Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) on the other hand has also warned the Akufo-Addo government not to attempt to remove taxes on imported sanitary pads.
AGI argued that scrapping the taxes on sanitary pads will be detrimental to the economy.