GST: Don’t penalise us for our monthly cycles

An online petition is launched to prevent women from having to pay tax for a monthly necessity they cannot avoid.

PETALING JAYA: An online petition was initiated to urge Putrajaya to put women’s sanitary products under the zero-rated items in regard to the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Communications officer Kamelia Shamsuddin started the petition on Thursday, calling the government to exclude sanitary products as they were a necessity for women due to the nature of their gender.

“Why should women be penalised with having to pay tax for what is biological?” she asked.

She added, this move infringed on the basic rights of women to sanitary products.

“We need to use it (sanitary napkins) every month. We cannot avoid buying it,” Kamelia said, adding that it would be even harder for women to put aside money for savings as after the implementation of GST, these sanitary products would cost more.

“A middle-range brand of 30 sanitary pads now cost RM16. When GST comes in force, it will cost more than that.

“This will restrict a woman’s ability to purchase products that are essential to assist them during their monthly cycles.

“I cannot imagine how women living in the rural areas are going to cope with that (increased cost),” Kamelia said.

She also told FMT she started the petition because she wanted to create awareness on the needs of Malaysian women.

“I was angered to learn sanitary products are GST taxed items,” she said, adding that she did not anticipate so many would sign the petition.

“I really hope the government will exclude sanitary pads from the GST taxed items before it comes into force on April 1,” she said.

She also said she was considering bringing the petition to the Women, Family, and Community Development Ministry if sanitary products were still not excluded.

As of Friday afternoon, 235 supporters had signed the petition onhttps://www.change.org/p/malaysian-government-stop-taxing-malaysian-women-for-their-periods-period