Sanitary napkins will be exempt from Goods and Services Tax (GST), Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said after a meeting of the GST Council.
Sanitary napkins are taxed 12 per cent under the one-year old GST regime, which attracted serious criticism from various quarters.
A group of students from Gwalior had written messages on sanitary napkins to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to eliminate the tax. Also, more than 300 female students affiliated to the Students Federation of India (SFI), the student's wing of the CPI(M), had posted sanitary napkins to Union minister Arun Jaitley as a mark of protest.
The tipping point was the government’s decision to exempt articles such as bindi, sindoor, and kajal from GST.
This would mean there would be no input tax credit available, even though inputs in the production of sanitary napkins are taxed.
It is expected that the council would decide on revision of tax rates on vending machines and lithium ion batteries among others.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the 28th GST Council meeting, the minister also said that tax on bamboo, too, has been slashed to 12 per cent.