The TCI team advocating for lower taxes on women’s health products.
For years, an 18% General Sales Tax on reproductive health products – including condoms, intrauterine contraceptive devices, and hormonal contraceptives – pushed these essential items out of reach for Pakistan’s most vulnerable families. A parallel “pink tax” did the same to women’s hygiene products. The stakes were high: nearly 70% of the country’s unmet need for family planning sits among the lowest-income households.
Implemented locally by Greenstar Social Marketing, The Challenge Initiative (TCI), together with stakeholders across the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) sectors, made removing these taxes a central advocacy priority. The Country Engagement Working Group (CEWG) served as a key platform for keeping the issue high on the national agenda.
The campaign ran on two tracks. Provincially, TCI spent over a year in Punjab raising the issue with Khawaja Imran Nazir, Minister for Health and Population, through the Partners’ Forum and direct meetings, strategically using the province’s political alignment with the federal government to carry the message upward. Nationally, the ask reached Federal Minister for Health Mustafa Kamal in March 2026, and by May, TCI was briefing Punjab parliamentarians to push the issue into legislative and budget discussions.
A pivotal moment came in May 2026, when the Punjab Health Minister visited Greenstar’s Lahore office. TCI presented a simple but powerful case: the existing 18% tax versus a zero-rated alternative, with the price drops, access gains, and health benefits that would follow.
The sustained, multi-level push paid off. In the Federal Budget for fiscal year 2026–27, the Government of Pakistan announced tax exemptions for contraceptives and women’s hygiene products – a milestone shaped by TCI’s leadership, the CEWG’s coordination, and evidence-based engagement that kept the issue alive through a critical budget cycle.
The exemptions are expected to lower prices, improve commodity availability, and expand access for millions of women, girls, and couples. More affordable contraceptives and hygiene products can drive higher uptake of family planning, fewer unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions, better maternal and child health outcomes, and greater dignity and financial protection for vulnerable families.
This effort shows how a clear and consistent advocacy ask carried across provincial and national channels, backed by shared evidence, and sustained over more than a year, can move the needle on a national budget decision. It’s a model TCI can replicate for the next policy barrier standing between Pakistan’s families and the services they need.
