The Sunday Mail
Natasha Kokai
The suspension of duty on all sanitary wear for one year through to November 2019 has been made effective by the gazetting of a legal framework to back the measures recently announced by Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube.
In the 2019 National Budget Statement, Prof Ncube said Government would scrap duty on sanitary wear.
In a notice in a Government Gazette, Prof Ncube on Friday said, “The Customs and Excise (Suspension) Regulations, 2003, published in Statutory Instrument 257 of 2003, are amended by the insertion after section 9FF of the following- 9GG Suspension of the duty on sanitary wear.
“A suspension of duty shall, for a period of 12 months (from 1st December 2018 to the 30thNovember 2019), be granted on sanitary (wear).”
In Parliament, Prof Ncube said he had considered calls by women to suspend duty on all sanitary wear and raw materials for their manufacture.
Prices of sanitary wear recently rose from an average of $2 to about $8, which is beyond the reach of many women, especially those in rural areas.
Some retailers are charging the sundry in United States dollars.
In Zimbabwe, about 72 percent of rural primary school girls that menstruate do not use sanitary pads.
This has seen most girls miss school or use unhygienic material exposing themselves to urinary tract infections, rashes and bacterial build-ups.
