High court issues orders over 12 % GST on sanitary napkins

New Delhi July 19: A notice was issued recently.
The Delhi High Court yesterday has issued a notice to the Centre for imposing 12 % GST on sanitary napkins.

The court has ordered Finance Ministry and GST Council to file a reply in this matter. The court has given such orders while hearing a petition filed by Zarmina Israr Khan, a Ph.D. scholar at the Jawaharlal Nehru University.

She has termed the imposition of higher tax on sanitary napkins, terming it "illegal" and "unconstitutional." The petitioner has also claimed the government has exempted many items which are used by women similary government must exempt tax on hygiene, which is essential for the health of women.



However, the Government has said that earlier there was 13.68 % tax on these items including VAT and Central excise duty and we have reduced it to 12 %. the government has also released that the tax rates on different raw materials used in preparing the sanitary pads.

12 % GST input items

* Thermo Bonded Non-woven
* Release Paper
* Wood Pulp

18 % GST input taxes

* Super Absorbent Polymer
* Poly Ethylene Film
* Glue
* LLDPE– Packing Cover

The government has also said that the traders would suffer we would lower the tax rate because manufacturers and traders cannot claim input tax credit.