Health

Sanitary Towels VAT exempted in Rwanda

December 12, 2019

Tax on sanitary pads has been scrapped in Rwanda to make them more affordable, the ministry of gender has announced.

Period poverty is an overwhelming concept in Africa. Young girls either don’t have access to menstrual products and WASH (water, sanitation and good hygiene) facilities, or in the rare scenarios where they do, they don’t have any way of disposing menstrual waste.

Girls in poor families are known to miss school when they are on their periods because they can’t afford the pads, Aline Berabose, a Rwandan reproductive health activist, told the BBC and now thanks to the Rwandan government for scrapping off the VAT, value added tax that was previously at 18% making it to expensive for the less unfortunate families to get for their girls, exposing them to shame and embarrassment during their menstruation lowering their dignity.

Rwanda is the first East African countries to include sanitary towels on their list of VAT exempted goods. South Africa had already intiated and implented the tax exemption a year a go, while kenya is still on it with so many activists on board pushing for the same agenda of tax exemption on sanitary towels or better still giving free menstrual towels to girls and facility the restoration of their dignity as opposed to giving free condoms. Arguing that sex is an option whereas menstruation is a must go through cycle each month.

To address the problem of unavailability, many sub-Saharan countries have launched initiatives to better market penetration of sanitary pads. Rwanda, kenya , south Africa are the flag bearers in subsidising commercial sanitary products for rural girls and removing value-added tax on menstrual hygiene products, Kenya seems not ti have achieved yet but their is hope.