Pakistan scraps tax on period products and contraceptives

Posted on by Taiwo Adebulu

2 min readJun 17, 2026 01:09 PM IST

Pakistan’s government has made women’s hygiene products and contraceptives tax-free, Arab News reported.

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar announced the measures, saying these were aimed at providing relief to the masses.

Women’s rights activists and organisations in Pakistan have long demanded the abolition of “period tax” — an additional charge that was added to the retail price of women’s hygiene products, such as sanitary napkins, tampons, and other related products.

According to UNICEF, such an additional tax can push the retail price of sanitary pads by 40 per cent, making them inaccessible for many women and girls, especially those belonging to rural and impoverished sectors of the society.

“Regarding women, it was a massive demand in this country to end the pink tax,” Arab News quoted Tarar as saying at the National Assembly session on Sunday. “Today, the tax on their hygiene products has been reduced to 0 percent from 18 percent.”

The information minister mentioned that population is another serious challenge in the country, while informing the lawmakers that the government has also waived the tax on contraceptives for the upcoming fiscal year.

Terming it a “relief budget”, Tarar said, “This budget is a budget for an era where we are entering a period of prosperity.”

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Mahwari Justice, one of the organisations fighting for women’s menstrual equity and reproductive rights in Pakistan, welcomed the move by the government. Pakistani women’s rights activist Mahnoor Omer, named among TIME magazine’s ‘Women of the Year’ for 2026, also appreciated the gesture.

— with inputs from Arab News

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