In honour of International Women’s Day (IWD), the Personal, Educational, and Career Development (PEC) Institute has called on the government to immediately repeal luxury taxes on sanitary pads.
The institute mediates the voices of many women in Ghana, particularly young girls, and aligns with gender-responsive advocacy groups in response to the government’s insensitive stance on the issue of period tax, which primarily affects women.
Ghana, like many other countries, is still recovering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is also worth noting that women and girls were among the minorities who bore the brunt of the pandemic.
According to a UN Women report, 40 percent of all employed women – 510 million women worldwide – work in hard-hit sectors, compared to 36.6 percent of employed men. As part of efforts to stabilise the economy, the government must pay close attention to issues affecting women and girls, particularly menstrual hygiene.
Because of the recent increase in the price of goods and services as a result of the ailing economy, the price women and young girls must pay for sanitary products is significant. The high cost of menstrual pads has a negative impact on menstrual hygiene, particularly in rural Ghana following the pandemic.
Nearly a year ago, a pack of sanitary pads cost between Ghs 6.50p and Ghs 10. Now, same brands of sanitary towels cost between Ghs 15 and Ghs 20. Clearly, these price increases coupled with limited financial resources, only exacerbate period poverty in Ghana.
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Research conducted by UNESCO reveals that, most girls are absent from school for four days in a month and end up losing 13 learning days equivalent in every school term.
The data clearly indicates a reversal in progress made in ensuring that young girls have equal benefits and access to education.
Indeed, the importance of taxes as critical revenue mobilization source for government is not lost on us. It is, however, a retrogressive public policy if revenue mobilization is placed ahead of key social services and necessities such as sanitary pads.
PEC appreciates the “free pads” solution proposed by some advocates, while we commend the idea, we, however, believe it will only create an avenue for unscrupulous persons to hoard and even sell these items rather than making them freely available to those who need them; defeating the very purpose for which they were made free.
The theme for this year’s IWD celebration is “Embrace Equity”. It is at the back of this that PEC makes this urgent demand of government to relook at taxes applied to menstrual products.
We believe that women and young girls can achieve their full potential if they are provided with the necessary resources. There is already so much discomfort with periods. It is thoughtless on the part of government to continue applying taxes to these sanitary items.
We are proposing a sustainable solution by calling on the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection to as a matter of urgency ensure that the taxes applied to sanitary towels are repealed and further enhance its accessibility to the average girl of school-going age.
We also urge the ministry to liaise with the finance ministry, ministry of health and other relevant agencies to enable more local industries to go into the production of sanitary products, to create jobs for the teeming youth and address Ghana’s high unemployment situation.
