In a major victory for the plight of poor and mostly rural young women, Government has resolved to abolish the payment of Value Added-Tax (VAT) on sanitary pads.
Consumer will also no longer pay VAT on white bread flour and cake flour with effect from April 2019.
This was announced by finance minister Tito Mboweni in parliament when he presented his maiden medium term budget policy state on Wednesday, which outlines government spending priorities for the next three years.
Mboweni said at this stage, government was not planning any further tax increases but the fuel levy was likely to continue rising in the next three years, which means high petrol prices are not about to go away anytime soon.
Women MPs, academics, and civil society bodies have long been calling for the abolishment of VAT on sanitary towels, with most them warning that young girls from poor households we missing schools classes when they were menstruating because they could not afford sanitary pads.