Six sanitary and hygiene products join essential commodities list |30 May 2020

Some of the new additions to the essential commodities list

By Elsie Pointe

The food security surveillance committee and the department of trade have expanded on the list of essential commodities to include six sanitary and hygiene products.

These new additions are soap, toothpaste, sanitisers, detergents for laundry and dishes, sanitary pads and diapers for adults and infants.

The revised list was presented to the cabinet of ministers during its deliberations on May 20 and was subsequently approved.

According to principal secretary for trade, Cilia Mangroo, these products were added to the essential list to ensure that they receive priority foreign exchange allocations from the Central Bank of Seychelles (CBS) for their importation.

She further noted that this will not have much impact on taxes, and possibly not even on prices, since the majority of the six items are already tax free.

The essential commodities list already consists of rice, high protein flour, milk powder, infant formulae, potatoes, onions, sunflower oil, apples, oranges, lentils, salt, margarine, sugar and toilet paper.

These receive various tax exemptions and rebates, and are prioritised for foreign exchange allocation.

“The food security surveillance committee chaired by Minister Charles Bastienne was tasked with proposing a list of items deemed to be essential in light of COVID-19 but that were not included on the previous list,” PS Mangroo explained.

These six products were considered in line with the hygiene directives being promoted by the health department to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Hand washing with soap and the use of hand sanitisers are especially being recommended to stave off COVID-19.

PS Mangroo noted that the committee is presently not considering any other items to join the 20 products now on the essential commodities list.