M&S has made headway on its ‘Say Pants to the Tax’ campaign calling for VAT on period underwear to be scrapped, after the government announced it was keeping the tax under review.
The retailer, alongside period pants brand Wuka, kicked off the campaign last week, which has since seen Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Primark and Mountain Warehouse back the call.
“Following just two weeks of pant-tastic campaigning, for the first time ever, the government has said it’s keeping the tax on period pants under review,” M&S said on Friday, thanking the support it had received so far.
“However, this still isn’t enough, so we’re not throwing in the knickers just yet!”
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“M&S, WUKA and our broad coalition of supporters – from retailers to charities, big and small – will continue to up the (p)ante to get this legislation changed so period pants are classified as they should be; a period product.”
The government said on Thursday it was “committed to making sanitary products affordable” but acknowledged that the specialist underwear was not included in current VAT exemption for sanitary products.
It said that “under existing rules period pants may qualify for the zero (VAT) rate if they meet the sizing criteria and are held out for sale specifically for use by girls under the age of 14 years old”.
However, M&S said: “The current rules ignore the majority of the population that need and use this product.”
“It would be very easy to draft new regulations which meant only those knickers with a health use – like period pants – stopped being subject to VAT.”
The high street retailer said on Wednesday it had joined Tesco in covering the cost of VAT across its range of period pants to make things “fairer sooner for our customers”.
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