THE HATED tampon tax has been abolished – slashing the cost of sanitary products for women.
Britain has finally been able to ditch the EU levy as it marks its first day of Brexit freedom.
Sanitary products should become cheaper from today
Chancellor Rishi Sunak said he was “proud” to deliver on the key election and Vote Leave pledge.
He said: “I’m proud that we are today delivering on our promise to scrap the tampon tax.
“Sanitary products are essential so it’s right that we do not charge VAT.
“We have already rolled out free sanitary products in schools, colleges and hospitals and this commitment takes us another step closer to making them available and affordable for all women.”
Felicia Willow, boss of the Fawcett Society which campaigns on equality, hailed the move.
She said: “It’s been a long road to reach this point, but at last the sexist tax that saw sanitary products classed as non-essential, luxury items can be consigned to the history books.”
The EU forces all its members to slap a 5% tax on tampons.
The “sexist” levy became a key issue in the Brexit campaign, with Boris Johnson saying it was yet another reason why the UK should sever ties with Brussels.
Mr Sunak promised to scrap the tax at the last Budget and now Britain has finally fully left the EU, the tax cut kicked in today.
Scrapping the tax will cut the cost of a pack of 20 tampons by around 7p, and a pack of 12 pads by 5p.
But it’s not clear if this will bring down the cost of sanitary products in supermarkets, some of which have already cut prices.
In August 2017 Tesco became the first British supermarket to effectively scrap the Tampon Tax by covering the 5 per cent VAT itself.
Waitrose and Morrisons also cut their prices on hundreds of items to cancel out the effect of VAT.
But retailers can set their own prices and don’t have to pass on the VAT cuts to shoppers.
