Pakistan scraps period tax, but activists say more relief needed

Pakistan is removing its 18% sales tax on menstrual hygiene products and contraceptives, but the change may do little for the women and girls who still cannot get safe pads in the first place. Activists say the reform addresses only one layer of a much bigger access problem, in a country where menstruation remains taboo in many families and commercially made products are still out of reach for most households.

The tax cut is part of the federal budget for fiscal 2026-27 and is set to take effect on July 1. That has been welcomed as long overdue, especially after an organizing push that turned the issue into both a political fight and a courtroom challenge. Mahnoor Omer, an Islamabad-based human rights lawyer, filed a petition in the Lahore High Court in September 2025 contesting what she and other campaigners described as a discriminatory period tax.

The scale of the access gap is stark. Recent UNICEF-linked reporting found that only about one in 10 girls and women in Pakistan use commercially manufactured menstrual products, while other estimates put the share at 12 percent. A standard pack of 10 sanitary pads cost about 450 rupees, or roughly $1.60, in late 2025, a price that remains steep for many families even before taxes are added.

Campaigners say the new budget still leaves room for markups. Even after the sales tax is removed, other charges, including import duty, can add about 20 percent to the price, and taxes on raw materials can still ripple through the supply chain. Earlier reporting showed that Pakistan had levied an 18 percent sales tax on locally manufactured pads and a 25 percent customs tax on imported ones, pushing the effective burden on sanitary products to around 40 percent.

That is why reproductive health advocates argue that tax relief is only a partial fix. They point to Malawi, where prices reportedly did not fall after taxes were removed, as a warning that policy changes on paper do not always translate into cheaper products on shop shelves. Pakistan now joins countries including India and Nepal that have reduced or eliminated taxes on menstrual products, but activists say the real test will come in stores, where consumers will see whether the price of a pack of pads actually drops.