Bagbin lambasts Akufo-Addo for taxing sanitary pads

Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin has slammed President Akufo-Addo for taxing sanitary pads. He also warned future governments against continuing the act while calling for it to be scrapped.

While reacting to the justification by the Member of Parliament for Sefwi Akontombra, Alex Tetteh Djornobuah for the imposition of taxes on sanitary pads, Bagbin questioned how much revenue is generated from it.

According to Bagbin, what is bizarre is that the taxes are not on imported sanitary pads but even also on locally made ones. He said the decision means government continues to burden the poor while letting the rich go free.

“On the issue of sanitary pads, the government should rethink about it. Because the taxes are not only imported ones, even the locally produced ones are taxed. The businesses met me two days ago, [and told me that] even the raw materials are taxed. They were complaining about production, to the extent that some of them folded up. This is something that I take seriously. Don’t let us miss the point, I will not tax a woman, my mother for producing me. I don’t support that at all, so the state must take this matter seriously,” Bagbin stated.

“There are countries where it is for free, there are countries where a lot of taxes have been removed. That is an issue I’m very passionate about, to all governments that will come, we can do without it. How much do we make from this taxation? We like taxing the poor, we are not taxing the rich”.

In Ghana, menstrual hygiene products such as sanitary pads and tampons are classified as “Finished Goods”, attracting a 20% import tax. They also carry a Value Added Tax (VAT) of between 12.5-15%. As Ghana taxes sanitary pads under the “luxury goods”, other countries in Africa are removing taxes on the same while some others are providing free sanitary pads to school girls.