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In March, Belizean student Seidy Quetzal's " Don't Tax My Femininity" campaign, a push to have taxes removed from female sanitary products in Belize, yielded results after cabinet gave its approval to remove 12.5 percent GST tax, 20 percent import duty tax, and the 3 percent environmental tax on sanitary products for women. This took effect on April 1st, and was included in the national budget.
But, moving the import duty wasn't so easy.
Belize, as a member of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, government had to request a waiver from COTED, the CARICOM Council for Trade and Economic Development. A cabinet release today announced that approval has finally been granted for the suspension of Tariffs on sanitary towels and napkins for one year and tampons for two years.GOB will now make the necessary adjustments to ensure that zero-rating of duties is reflected on these products. Bottom line, we should see a visible decrease in prices when new stock arrives in country, but we'll keep checking store shelves to make sure.
