Sex is a choice but menstrual is not.Still government of India imposed 13.7% tax on sanitary pads when the new law of GST was introduced.
First talking about GST,what is GST exactly and what are its benefits? Goods and Services Tax (GST) is an indirect tax applicable throughout India which replaced multiple cascading taxes levied by the central and state governments. It was introduced as The Constitution (One Hundred and First Amendment) Act 2017, following the passage of Constitution 122nd Amendment Bill. The GST is governed by a GST Council and its Chairman is the Finance Minister of India. Under GST, goods and services are taxed at the following rates, 0%, 5%, 12% ,18% and 28%. There is a special rate of 0.25% on rough precious and semi-precious stones and 3% on gold. In addition a cess of 15% or other rates on top of 28% GST applies on few items like aerated drinks, luxury cars and tobacco products.One of which is sanitary pad.
In developing country like India,where the number of females who cannot afford sanitary pad is still remarkable is imposing tax on sanitary pad acceptable.Girls go through many problems when they are into their menstrual period.Most of the rural girls avoid going in public due to the insecurity about people coming to know about their condition because they do not have proper things with which they can maintain their hygiene.Thus leading to various internal infections and diseases.
This is something natural and it cannot be avoided so the situation where the females are to be given proper education about the hygiene to be maintained in those days and providing them with proper material is an important task that is been carried out my various NGOs.Government can help these
NGOs to work on larger scale instead on apply extra taxes on such products.On other side sex is an individual’s choice so if taxes are applied on sex product like condoms it would not affect anyone,but imposing tax on sanitary pads would lead to decrease in people who are associated with the noble cause of educating the backward female class.
After strong opposition from female class the government reduced the tax to 12% but again is imposing tax on such necessary products would help India to grow?
