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Thursday 17 March 2016 11:21 am

Women rejoice: The tampon tax is about to be axed as George Osborne says deal with EU “days away”

By: Lynsey Barber

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Women across Britain rejoice – the tampon tax is about to be axed.

George Osborne has said the government is about to agree a deal with Europe  "in the next few days" to end the raw deal that women get having to pat VAT on them.

"I perfectly understand people's anger at paying the tampon tax. I said we would get agreement that we could reduce this rate to zero. I think we are on the verge of getting that agreement. I think we are going to get that agreement in the next few days, we hope," he told he told the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme.

After widespread calls to end the tax last year, the chancellor had deferred a decision on scrapping it to Europe. 

The new agreement would put control over the tax back into his hands. That means women will no longer pay a five per cent levy on sanitary products.

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