Left behind by VAT policy: Why the Ella Pad movement deserves a seat at the table

“These pads are made by women like me—for women like me,” says Nazma Begum of Kollanpur Pora Bosti. “We eagerly waited for tax incentives so we could buy materials at a lower cost.”

Nazma is one of many small women entrepreneurs who depend on Ella Pad, a grassroots social enterprise that transforms garment factory scraps into reusable sanitary pads. For years, the Ella Pad movement has quietly advanced menstrual equity—offering dignity, affordability, and livelihoods to low-income women. Yet despite its impact, it remains excluded from national fiscal support.

The newly announced 2025–26 national budget extends VAT exemptions on sanitary pads until June 2030 and waives duties on imported raw materials. While these measures aim to improve access to menstrual products, their benefits come with steep conditions: a minimum Tk75 crore investment, a certified testing lab, over 250 employees, and at least 30% local value addition.

In effect, only large manufacturers—such as Square, ACI, SMC, and MGI—qualify, leaving out social enterprises like Ella Pad and over 100 women-led SMEs in the Ella Alliance. These producers, who use local materials to make millions of biodegradable, reusable pads, receive no tax relief.

The Ella Alliance has long maintained that it can help meet the menstrual health needs of 35 million women and girls in Bangladesh—without relying on costly plastic imports. But  current policy continues to favour disposable, plastic-based pads. As a result, the country loses valuable foreign currency to imports and misses out on local tax revenue by sidelining homegrown solutions.

This isn’t just a missed opportunity—it’s a policy failure. Reusable pads offer low-waste, long-term, community-based solutions for those most in need. Yet they remain unsupported and invisible in fiscal planning.

If menstrual equity is truly a national priority, policy must evolve. The government should revise tax criteria to include women-led, local social enterprises; support research and innovation in reusables; and promote sustainable menstrual solutions across the country.

Ella Pad began quietly—in slums, factories, and rural workshops. But the silence must end. Women like Nazma, and the innovators standing beside her, deserve to be heard—and supported.

[The writer is a Fulbright/Humphrey Fellow and Chevening Scholar; he coordinates the Ella Alliance.]