2nd Finance Minister Dato’ Seri Haji Ahmad Husni bin Mohamad Hanadzlah when winding up the debate on Agong’s speech on March 25 said that, price of sanitary pad would go down after GST came into force, as sanitary pad was subject to 10% sales tax, but GST was only 6%.
Not only that, In the Panduan Harga Pengguna published by the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co-Operatives and Consumerism has also claimed that sanitary pads would go down by 2%[1].
A check at Tesco[2] will put Malaysian women who have believed Ahmad Husni and our Ministry of Domestic Trade him in great disappointment.
Kotex Soft & Smooth Slim 10 pads, instead of being sold at RM3.14, is now sold at RM3.39. As for Libresse Maxi Non Wings 10 pads, instead of being sold at RM2.94, is now sold at RM3.19.
A comparison shows that the price of most, if not all sanitary pads, regardless its brand and types, goes up, and not down. For example, Kotex Soft & Smooth Maxi 2 x 20 pads, was sold at RM8.99 previously, but is now sold at RM9.55. And the list goes on.
Question is, is this another mistake made by the merchant, just like KK Mart and 7-Eleven? Or it just shows us that the words of our ministers and Panduan Harga Pengguna published by the government have no value at all?
Whichever the case, I support the call by a communications officer Kamelia Shamsuddin for the government to exclude sanitary products from GST as it is a necessity for women due to the nature of our gender.
Kamelia and her friend have started an online petition on Change.org to get the Malaysian government to stop taxing Malaysian women for their periods. The petition has so far received more than 12,000 signatories.[3] And I hope, Bintulu MP Tiong King Sing is one of the signatories, to show that he sincerely cares for women, and not merely poking fun at women’s biological needs.