The Pakistani government is removing the sales tax on women's menstrual products as well as birth control. The budget for next fiscal year has the sales tax on these products dropping from 18% to zero.
For decades, sanitary napkins and other menstrual items have been taxed as "luxury goods" and the price has put these products out of reach for many in Pakistan. According to a report from UNICEF, published in 2025, only about one in 10 girls and women in Pakistan use commercially manufactured products.
The decision to eliminate the sale tax on these products came after activists launched a lobbying effort and legal battle that were widely covered in the media.
"We're very happy with this news," says Mahnoor Omer, a human rights lawyer based in Islamabad. She is the petitioner in a September 2025 lawsuit that aimed to eliminate taxes on menstrual products. "Men and women alike — everybody's cheering on and welcoming this move."
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She praised the government for acting relatively quickly. "It's less than a year [since the lawsuit to end the tax was filed] which is unprecedented," she says. "Court cases take forever, and so do lawmakers and changing the law, so I will give credit where it's due."
Pakistan is following in the footsteps of several other countries which, in the past decade or so, have removed or lowered taxes and import duties on menstrual products. These countries include Malawi, India and Nepal.
However, some reproductive health advocates warn that eliminating taxes does not always lower the price of sanitary napkins. Look at what happened in Malawi, says Emily Cruz, who works on menstrual health for the nonprofit Splash. That country got rid of all the taxes on menstrual items, she says, but the price to the consumer remained the same. Exactly why is a mystery.
"Why haven't we seen the change in price?" she asked in an interview with NPR earlier this year. "There's a question there that I feel like really needs to be unpacked."
Cruz's guess is that the activists likely need another step in their strategy after removing the taxes: "Maybe that's a policy related to subsidizing menstrual health products or perhaps a policy that doesn't allow a retailer to markup essential goods."
Omer says changes in prices in Pakistan will be tracked. And even with this budget announcement, she says, there is more work to do to enable women to afford menstrual products in Pakistan. Other taxes that can add up to about 20% — like the import duty — will remain.
Plus, she says, the cost of these items isn't the only issue.
"You can reduce the tax, but that doesn't automatically reduce the stigma," she says.
Another Pakistani activist, Bushra Mahnoor, told NPR earlier this year that the stigma can be so intense that she often skipped school as an adolescent when she had her period and wasn't sure if she'd be able to find a pad.
"When I knew I might not have a pad and I had to rely on a cloth, those were the times I could not even imagine going to the school," Mahnoor recalled. "It was a big taboo mentioning that you were on your period. But mentioning that you were on your period without access to a pad was just even more humiliating."
Omer says, in addition to stigma around menstruation and reproductive health more broadly, there is also a lack of basic health information on the topic, particularly in rural areas. She would like to see these issues addressed in school lessons and awareness campaigns.
Still, Omer says, she's celebrating this change in the tax code. "This move has inspired me to take more action — just knowing that these things aren't going to lead to nothing," she says.
The sale tax on menstrual products will officially be dropped when the new budget takes effect on July 1.
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