Speaker of Parliament: Sanitary pad taxes are unfair.

The imposition of tariffs on sanitary pads in the nation has drawn significant condemnation from Speaker of the Parliament Alban Bagbin.

He called the legislation passed by Parliament to levy sanitary napkins “unconscionable and a cardinal sin.”

“This House should not have allowed it at all; you know the impact of that law on human resource development and the development of this country is immeasurable,” he said.

The VAT of 12.5% and the import charge of 20% are two levies that apply to sanitary napkins.

Questionable legislature 

When speaking to the Parliament yesterday, Mr. Bagbin asked: “Why should we pass a law imposing a tax on sanitary pads?”

He declared, “We must move right away to stop whoever is the minister and is proposing it from taking it off.

Petition

When he informed the House of a petition he had received from the Socialist Movement of Ghana, a group of civil society and nonprofit organizations that had picketed the Parliament building yesterday, the Speaker addressed those feelings to the members of the House. Speaker

He then took a 10-minute break from his seat to go and accept the petition from the group, whose members were wearing red clothing and armbands and carrying signs that emphasized the need to suspend tariffs on sanitary napkins.

“You cannot tax my period,” and “We are already bleeding,” among other signs. Don’t tax our period, don’t view sanitary pads as a luxury good, and don’t tax bleeding young girls since it’s unfair and discriminatory.

Placed limitations on oneself

The Speaker said that the next budget statement must not include a tax on sanitary pads because the impact of such a levy was so great before heading to meet with the demonstrators.

Mr. Bagbin added, sounding quite upset, “Please, I take a very serious view of this matter.”

He voiced particular concern about the way that Parliament had placed what he called some limitations on itself.

The Speaker declared that the Executive was not more powerful than Parliament in accordance with the idea of Ghana’s democracy, the choice made by Ghanaians, which was enshrined in the 1992 Constitution.

However, we recently ceded all of our authority to exactly what the Supreme Court stated lately, so this is self-imposed. We granted the Executive our consent to impose limitations during the COVID-19 era.

“I declared on the floor that it was improper for Parliament to pass laws, transfer its authority to the Executive, and deliver it up to it on a silver platter. According to the Supreme Court’s ruling, that was unconstitutional, Mr. Bagbin claimed. Speaker

Scrap taxes 
Ama Pratt, the movement’s spokeswoman, claimed that the two taxes had significantly raised the cost of goods.

Since women and girls made up 51% of Ghana’s population, she claimed that this had made sanitary pads expensive for many of them, adding that “we are responsible for recreation and our period is first of recreation.”

According to Ms. Pratt, taxing sanitary napkins at birth is wrong and shouldn’t take place.

“Look at the girl-child who is struggling to get food, water, a schoolbag, and uniforms, and on top of that, what she used to buy for GH5, you put an impediment in the girl-child’s way, is unacceptable,” she emphasized.

Ms. Pratt encouraged the government to do away with the sanitary pad levy in order to improve the lives of women and girls.

Don’t abolish taxes

While women’s organizations and other CSOs advocate for the repeal of sanitary pad taxes, private sector organizations like the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) have advised the government against doing so in order to favor foreign manufacturers over domestic ones. Speaker

According to the association, such a move would be extremely detrimental to the economy.

In the case of the AGI, this would eventually result in the closure of the last few nearby sanitary pad factories.

The association claimed that the demand for the abolition of tariffs on imported sanitary pads was misdirected in a statement signed by Seth Twum-Akwaboah, the Chief Executive Officer of the AGI.

Petition from manufacturers

Local producers of sanitary pads submitted a different petition to the government, asking for the VAT and import charge to be waived on imported raw materials.

For almost 70% of young women in underprivileged communities, they claimed that such tax reliefs would make sanitary pads more accessible and more affordable.

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