Sri Lanka cuts tax on female hygiene products

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s government has cut taxes on female sanitary products in a bid to help women and girls unable to afford them.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office said Sunday that customs duties, airport levies and other local taxes on raw materials imported to make female hygiene products was waived with immediate effect.

Imported pads and tampons will also cost 20 percent less due to a reduction in import duties, Wickremesinghe’s office said in a statement.

The tax cut was to “make hygiene products more affordable in view of ensuring hygiene among women and school girls,” the statement said.

A study this year by policy advocacy group Advocata said “period poverty” — being unable to afford sanitary products — among Sri Lanka’s 5.3 million women of reproductive age was about 50 percent.

The new government of Wickremesinghe on Sunday began implementing a new turnover tax of 2.5 percent on all goods and services in a bid to raise state revenue.

However, the government marginally reduced the price of petrol in line with global prices, but kept the price of diesel, commonly used in public transport, unchanged.