When presenting the budget speech, Minister of Finance, Peggy Serame said in a view to sustain the livelihoods of people, the ministry is currently reviewing the list of items that are Zero rated for VAT purposes. She added that the list will be extended to include among others sanitary products and private medical services.
Serame said the zero rating of goods will extend to goods such as sanitary pads, baby diapers and infant formula. An economist and managing consultant of SPECK Dynamics, Sennye Obuseng told Mmegi that the decision to consider exempting VAT from sanitary products is a forward-looking move by the government. He stated that the minister deserves a pat on the back for the decision more especially when the minister mentioned that they will even review items which are already Zero VAT rated in order to determine if they should continue or be removed from the list. Speaking from a policy perspective, the economist indicated that the policy is attainable and will better the lives of women more especially in rural areas as it will improve accessibility of sanitary pads. He spoke about how such policies play a role in improving the standard of living for people. For instance, the government decision to reduce tax from 14 to 12 percent for commodities such as cooking oil was helpful in terms of mitigating inflation, he added. “The war between Russia and Ukraine affected the global supply chain leading to an increase in prices for different commodities including oil and gas and the government made an adjustment of VAT in order to make a difference in the livelihoods of the people,” he added. Even though there were complaints that most retailers were marking up their cooking prices despite the VAT relief measures, Obuseng believed that the move still reduced cooking oil prices to be affordable .
