The increase in VAT from the current 5% foreseen by the draft budget law
In the 2024 budget, according to the draft, VAT on sanitary pads and tampons will return from 5% to 10%. There are 21 million women of childbearing age in Italy who need these products every month and over the course of their lives each woman uses up to 12 thousand of them. If each pack costs around 4-5 euros, and one per month is usually not enough, at the end of the year the cost is between 130 and 150 euros. With the doubling of VAT on these hygiene products, the tax will weigh around 15 euros per year, therefore with an increase of approximately 7.5 euros, compared to the current VAT of 5%.
An important battle had been waged in recent years against the so-called ‘tampon tax’ to lower the price of female sanitary pads, managing to obtain a reduction in VAT from 22% to 5%: “Now the tape is being rewound – complaint at Adnkronos Salute Silvia De Dea, one of the founders of ‘Onde rosa’, a collective that fought strongly for this cause, collecting 800 thousand signatures in a petition. “After a year, after so much space and attention had been given to the topic, a lot had been invested in this battle, we find ourselves taking a step back again. Among other things, at a time when it is not just a symbolic problem because inflation and prices are skyrocketing, and women are thus doubly penalized.”
“Among other things, the step backwards – he underlines – comes from a government that pays so much attention to the concept of family, but which then, when cuts need to be made, start from the bottom of the pyramid, penalizing women, but also mothers and families, given that the VAT increase will also concern children’s products. Instead, we ask that we start paying more attention to those who are always in this pyramid. This Government – he concludes – tells us which side it wants to be on: first it gave us the sop, reducing VAT, and then as soon as we have to raise cash everything goes into the background and the needs of women and families are no longer a priority”.
Source-www.adnkronos.com