Member of Parliament for Madina Constituency, Francis –Xavier Sosu has stressed that the taxes incurred on sanitary pad is unreasonable.
According to the lawmaker, the conception of these taxes are inequitable and violates the fundamental rights of women justifying the high cost of the sanitary pad has compelled some young women to resort to the use of untreated fabrics and tissues with bad implication to their health.
The NDC member in an interview with Sefa Danquah on Happy 98.9 FM’s “Epa Hoa Daben” explained that it would impoverish women in the country and advocated that the removal of the taxes would empower the country in its effort to fight poverty. He said, ‘’government is discriminating among women and making them poorer. Honestly, it’s a bad tax no matter how you put it’’
In addition, he declared his confidence in the bill making an instant impact if passed. He further called on Ghanaians to join the campaign to remove the tax. ‘
“If the voice of the people is the voice of God then I urge every woman and Ghanaian to join the campaign and I hope that parliament would listen to the voice of God and every MP would listen to the voice of God so that we can do the needful.”
The move he said is geared towards reducing its price and making it affordable for women to afford and promoting their hygiene.
This comes after the Madina MP presented a draft bill to parliament calling on the government to scrap the twenty per cent luxury tax and the fifteen percent value-added Tax on Sanitary pads to make them affordable. The proposed bill seeks to amend the VAT {Amendment } Act, 2022 ( ACT 1082) to remove the VAT on sanitary pads and tampons.
By: Deborah Adorsu