PARIS: Lawmakers in France’s National Assembly have voted against an amendment to lower the Value Added Tax (VAT) paid on feminine sanitary products from 20 percent to 5.5 percent.
Deputies rejected the amendment in the early hours of Thursday, after debating the issue for just 15 minutes. Opponents of the amendment — which was previously endorsed by a parliamentary commission — won by a one-vote margin.
During the debate, France’s Secretary of State for the Budget Christian Eckert noted that, “Men’s shaving foam is also taxed at 20 percent,” triggering a wave of angry responses from feminists and commentators on social media.
The proposed amendment to the 2016 budget was introduced by Socialist Deputy Catherine Coutelle, who also chairs the National Assembly’s Women’s Rights Delegation.
I wanted to bring this matter into the public arena,” Coutelle said Friday, adding that she would appeal the rejection in the Senate. “We consider these to be basic need products, because women who use these products have no choice but to use them,” she explained. According to Coutelle, the so-called “tampon tax” affects 15 million women in France.
VAT is a consumption tax paid on certain goods and services, which is included in the sale price. There are four rates of VAT in France, including the 5.5 percent rate, which is applied to such staples as food, gas and electricity, but also books.
The standard VAT rate applied to most goods is 20 percent. The is followed by the 10 percent rate, which applies to restaurants, transport, and agricultural products. The lowest rate is 2.1 percent — a special rate applied to medical drugs reimbursed by the French social security, and some newspapers.
The government does not want to budge on the VAT rates…This goes for this amendment and for the plethora of amendements that we are due to examine in the coming days,” said Eckert. According to the government, reducing the VAT on tampons, sanitary pads and menstrual cups would slash tax receipts by 55 million euros ($63 million).
