FLASHBACK: We will abolish import duties on sanitary pads – Bawumia

The high rise in the cost of Sanitary pads has been topical in the last few days.

Its spans from the comments made by the Chief Justice nominee, Gertrude Torkornoo, during her vetting who called for a partial tax on menstrual products depending on a person’s group of association, to the recent comment by Rita Etorman Sey, who also alleged that girls in the Northern part of the country use clay as a substitute for a sanitary pad.

It can be recalled that on August 22, 2020, the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia on a campaign platform, promised that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) on winning the election will remove the import duties on sanitary pads.

Three years on, the purchase of these menstrual products is still high in terms of prices, making it hard for some Ghanaians to afford them.

Read the full details and the 2020 story first published by pulse.com.gh. but republished on GhanaWeb on Tuesday, August 25, 2020, below:

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, promised that the next administration of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) will remove import duties on sanitary pads. The move, he said is geared towards reducing its market price, encouraging usage, and promoting personal hygiene and health for all women, especially girls.

He said "We will eliminate import duties on sanitary pads to improve health conditions, particularly for girls. Additionally, the taxes will remain until local companies can produce."

Speaking at the launch of the NPP manifesto at Cape Coast in the Central Region on Saturday, August 22, 2020, Bawumia said the NPP will enforce Agenda 111, formerly called Agenda 88 which seeks to build district hospitals across the country.

He stated that the NPP will vigorously scale up primary healthcare education through the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to achieve universal health coverage.

He pointed to the fact that 98 per cent of the disease burden was already covered by the NHIS and children, elderly and vulnerable groups were not to pay NHIS premiums therefore, it was meaningless for "those claiming they provide primary health Care" to deceive themselves.



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