By Sana Noor Haq, CNN

(CNN) — Pakistan’s government is set to abolish sales tax on sanitary products, in a sweeping new measure that reproductive justice advocates say could de-stigmatize ubiquitous social taboos around sexual health.

The planned withdrawal of the 18% sales tax on sanitary items and contraceptives, announced as part of the country’s fiscal budget last week, comes after a campaign for improved access to commercial period products in a nation where only a tiny proportion of woman currently use them.

Such items are “indispensable for women’s health, dignity and full participation in social activities,” said Muhammad Aurangzeb, the finance minister, on Friday.

Aurangzeb said the government would also abolish tax on contraceptives, citing the country’s “alarming” population growth. “Pakistan is the fifth-largest country in the world in terms of population,” he added. “Family planning is a top priority of the government.”

Lawyers Ahsan Jehangir Khan, 29, and Mahnoor Omer, 25, are widely credited with sparking the national discourse in Pakistan after they took the government to court in a landmark legal case urging lawmakers to remove the so-called “period tax” and categorize menstrual products as essential goods instead of luxury items.

According to the United Nations’ children’s agency UNICEF, it is estimated that just 12% of women and girls in Pakistan use commercial sanitary products. Most others resort to cloth and other homemade alternatives, advocates say.

Cost is considered a factor in the low uptake, with locally made products currently incurring the 18% sales tax, and an additional 25% customs tax being added on imported products, according to Khan and Omer’s legal petition submitted in October.

When coupled with other local taxes, women in Pakistan face a total 40% surcharge on period products, according to UNICEF, pricing out the most vulnerable.

While welcoming the sales tax proposal, Omer, the petitioner in the legal case, and Khan, who is representing her, are pressing for the complete eradication of the entire taxation regime surrounding menstrual items, including additional levies on raw materials used to make sanitary pads.

They say that, by applying tax, the Pakistani government has systematically neglected women’s and girls’ rights to health and education – hindering their ability to fully participate in public life – and violated Article 25 of the Constitution, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex.

Khan told CNN on Sunday that the ongoing case “highlighted the absurdity of the taxation regime” on sanitary items.

“If there was never a constitutional petition, the government would not have woken up to the fact that even the sales tax is wrong,” he said.

In recent years, other governments – including India, Nepal, Scotland and more than a dozen US states – have made similar reforms to lower or remove taxes on period products.

‘Our fight is very much ongoing’

The UN Women agency welcomed the “important step” on Monday, saying that increased affordability of menstrual products will enable more women and girls to stay in the workplace and school.

Bushra Mahnoor, a reproductive justice activist, hailed the “symbolic value” of the proposed change.

“More than the impact this tax removal is going to have in prices, is the impact it has in de-stigmatizing menstruation, and we should not take that lightly,” she told CNN.

But Mahnoor, who co-founded the Pakistan-based non-profit Mahwari Justice, which seeks to end period poverty and menstrual stigma, cautioned that the intervention “does not impact all the menstruators in the country, and definitely not the most vulnerable ones.”

As of mid-2025, nearly 45% of the country’s population were living below the World Bank’s global lower middle-income poverty line of $4.20 (about 1,175 Pakistani rupees) per day, it reported last year.

However, on average, a pack of 10 commercial sanitary pads costs more than a third of a day’s income and might not be enough to last one woman or girl for a month.

Following a hearing in late November, a court in Rawalpindi ordered the government to give a “timely response” to Khan and Omer’s arguments as stated in their petition, so the case could proceed.

In a summary of those responses earlier this year, seen by CNN, the government denied that such tax rates were “excessive” and “discriminatory” because the structure was “designed to meet the revenue needs of the state, which funds public services, including those benefitting women.”

Now that the federal government has shared their replies to Khan and Omer’s petition, the case is due for final arguments, after which a decision will be given by the judiciary. If Omer and Khan’s case is successful, the ruling could prompt the scrapping of all taxes related to sanitary products – including customs tax on raw materials – or of import tax on imported menstrual items.

“Our fight is very much ongoing, but we are elated that at least the government has realized that these are not luxury products,” added Khan.