NATIONAL Treasury has told members of Parliament that instead of exempting a VAT tax on sanitary pads, government departments should budget for them and give them away to members of the public, including schools, for free.

Ismail Momoniat, the head of Tax and Financial Sector Policy at the National Treasury, said Treasury was ready to support the departments of health and education to explore the possibility of providing relief by making additional funding available for the purchase and distribution of feminine hygiene and sanitary products free of charge at schools and clinics.

“The solution would be on the expenditure side, to make budgeting funds available either through the Department of Health and the health budget and sometimes to departments like education to make sanitary pads freely available, certainly at schools, universities and so on. I think the issue is then how do you target other parts of the society,” he said.

“The National Treasury wants to be clear. We fully support what the objective is – to make them freely available. I used the example of that condoms seem to be available in many public places. In the same way, can we get all government institutions to provide them in public places available for free.”