The newly-signed coalition agreement delivers something long requested by various interest groups: that tampons and other feminine protection products be classified as essential products covered by the lowest VAT rate of 3%.
"The list of essential products, which benefit from a super-reduced value-added tax rate of 3%, will be reviewed and updated in order to include other essential products, notably including feminine hygiene protection products," says the relevant passage in the 2018-2023 Coalition Agreement document.
This has been the goal of pressure groups including the Luxembourg NGO Planning Familial, which published an open letter to Luxembourg's political parties on 20 August 2018, calling for the country to follow the example of Belgium and France in classifying feminine hygiene protection products as essential.
In that letter, the NGO said it was "still seeing red" because despite petition, press statements and a successful #NoTaxTampon video campaign on Facebook, "feminine hygiene protection was still not considered an essential product in Luxembourg".
Up until now, any women buying tampons, or a range of other feminine hygiene protection products was still required to pay a 17% VAT tax rate, the highest and standard rate.
For Planning Familial, the government had to classify feminine protection products alongside other essential products such as water, food, medication or even condoms.
Even soda, animal food, books and newspapers qualify for this 3% rate.
Planning Familial worked alongside the "Voice of Young Women" (Voix de Jeunes Femmes) collective. It credited this group for raising the profile of the #NoTaxTampon cause including by questioning Luxembourg's political parties on the subject.
At an early stage, the LSAP and déi greng parties had included a reduction in the VAT rate part of their campaign platform.
