No padding the real women’s issues
The government will zero-rate three items, these are sanitary pads, bread flour and cake flour.
As of April next year, the government will zero-rate three items, these are sanitary pads, bread flour and cake flour.
Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni announced this during the medium-term budget policy statement in Parliament on October 24.
Mboweni said that revenue loss related to zero-rating these items is estimated to be at R1.2 billion.
With this number being significantly high, the minister said that zero-rating these items would restore the dignity of people in low income homes who struggle to make ends meet.
Earlier this year, the government increased Value Added Tax (VAT) by one per cent which caused strain on many households who could barely afford the previous 14 per cent VAT.
Since the VAT increase announcement, an independent panel of experts worked together to compile a list of products that should be VAT free, so far only the three mentioned, have been approved.
#Freetoobleed campaign activists said that the campaign’s main goal was to ensure that sanitary pads were made free to the public because menstruation is not a choice.
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The campaign focuses on ensuring that sanitary towels are affordable, that girls stay in school when on their period, that the stigma menstruation possesses changes and that menstrual health and hygiene is considered and taken more seriously.
This year, anti-drug activist, Dereleen James with the help of Dischem Mondeor, distributed sanitary towels to two high schools in Eldorado Park.
More recently, the Upendo Women’s Foundation visited girls in Freedom Park to talk about menstrual health and to distribute re-usable sanitary towels which are a first for feminine hygiene and will go a long way towards ensuring that girls from indigent homes stay in school during that time of the month.
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