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According to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) lawmaker, this challenge has led to many teenage girls engaging in transactional sex with men.
She bemoaned the consequences of high taxes on sanitary towels, which she said have dragged many girls into transactional sex in order to get access to them.
“It is somebody’s life and it affects their daily life. Make it cheap, make it accessible. Some of these girls out of immaturity and a need that they don’t know how to deal with, are having transactional sex because a man is providing a simple sanitary towel for them.”
Relatedly, the Association of Ghanaian Industries (AGI) has said that calls on the removal of taxes on sanitary pads is illogical.
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According to the AGI, "much as the waiver of duties/taxes on imported sanitary pads for our young women to make the pads more affordable may sound good, this will only end up completely wiping out the few local sanitary pad factories left in our country."
"Therefore, the Association is of the view that the call for the removal of duties on imported sanitary pads is misplaced," the AGI said in a press release.
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The AGI further cautioned the government not to attempt to remove taxes on imported sanitary pads.
According to the group, any measure by the government to remove taxes on imported sanitary pads at the expense of local manufacturers will be detrimental to the economy.
The statement signed by Seth Twum-Akwaboah, the Chief Executive Officer of AGI said, “the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) wishes to caution Government that any policy measure that seeks to remove taxes on imported sanitary pads, at the expense of local manufacturers of same will be very detrimental to our economy."
The AGI mentioned that such public discourse ought to be reconsidered.