How do you classify sanitary pad as a luxury item? - Randy Abbey flares up

Host of Good Morning Ghana, Randy Abbey, has wondered why the government included sanitary pads in the list of items it deemed as luxurious.

Despite calls from Civil Society Organizations for government to scrap the importation tax imposed on sanitary products to make them affordable to all women and girls, nothing has been done about it.

Expressing disappointment in government for not talking about this basic need for all women and girls in the 2023 mid-year budget review statement read by the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta in parliament on Monday, July 31, 2023, Randy Abbey questioned whether government has not read about period poverty and its implications on women and girls.

"Do you in classifying some particular items as luxury and slapping the luxury tax on them, add sanitary pads. I am sure there were women at the table ...you've not read about period poverty and its implications?," Randy Abbey asked government.

It would be recalled that the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, on June 23, 2023, expressed strong abhorrence at the imposition of taxes on sanitary pads in the country.

He described the passage of laws by parliament to impose the tax on sanitary pads as “unconscionable and a cardinal sin.”

Currently, sanitary products are enlisted in Chapter 96 of the Harmonised System and attract a 32.5 percent tax on imported sanitary pads which is made up of 20 percent import duty and 12.5 per cent in Value Added Tax.

ESA/KPE