2024 Budget: No VAT On Locally Produced Sanitary Pads — Ofori-Atta

The government has announced a zero rate Value Added Tax (VAT) on locally manufactured sanitary pads for the 2024 fiscal year.

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta revealed this while presenting the Budget Statement and Economic Policy for the 2024 Financial Year in Parliament on Wednesday, November 15, 2023.

He also announced import duty waivers for raw materials for the local manufacture of sanitary pads.

“The following reliefs have been prioritised for implementation: Zero rate VAT on locally produced sanitary pads, Grant import duty waivers for raw materials for the local manufacture of sanitary pads,” he stated.

Ghana currently has a 12.5 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) and a 20 per cent import tax on sanitary pads.

This has impacted the affordability of sanitary pads, making them inaccessible for a significant portion of Ghana’s female population, which constitutes 51% of the overall population.

Several groups and individuals have consistently called on the government to scrap the taxes.

They noted that menstruation is a natural phenomenon that is vital to women’s reproductive and developmental processes.

Therefore, it was crucial for the government and decision-makers to alleviate the burden experienced by girls in the acquisition and use of pads.

Prominent among these is the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, who called the imposition of these taxes on sanitary pads a “cardinal sin”.

He expressed his worry after various civil society organisations submitted a petition to parliament calling for the removal of the taxes.

Other groups, such as the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana, Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), among others, added their voices to the call.