 Prime Minister Hon. Philip J. Pierre and his cabinet of ministers continue to work to craft economic policies to strengthen consumer spending and ensure the retail costs of everyday goods remains affordable for the average St. Lucian household. Prime Minister Pierre, having secured approval from the House of Parliament, recently amended VAT legislation to reduce prices on select consumer goods by 12.5%. The Prime Minister's VAT amnesty included sanitary napkins and towels. And a significant step on the 96.19 ms speaker sanitary towels and napkins and similar articles of any materials ms speaker. These are the things that are significant ms speaker. Single mothers who want to bring up their children in a respectable way ms speaker and they have to make a choice ms speaker. A choice at certain times of the month of whether they must buy food for their children or they must buy sanitary napkins. That is the reality of life for many people in this country. This means that even if, even if the cost of these imported goods increase in the final analysis, you ought to pay 12.5% less than you would have paid previously before we remove the VAT on this identity speaker. However, consumer concerns regarding the seemingly increasing costs of sanitary products prompted the Consumer Affairs Department to conduct that investigation into VAT registered retailers. I want to state categorically that once the government of St. Lucia has implemented a revised tax measure, it is to be applied immediately. Business owners claim not to have known about this tax revision, not to be standing that the Inland Revenue Department confirmed that all VAT registered businesses were contacted several weeks in advance of this implementation. On September 12th, Minister for Commerce Honourable Emma Hippolet disclosed the findings in Parliament. Most VAT registered retailers were found to be non-compliant with government's legislated suspension of VAT on sanitary towel products. Through commercial cooperation, we have been able to obtain this data and have noted with some disappointment, non-compliance in certain instances. From our database, which contained most of the VAT-related businesses engaged in the supply of sanitary products, 80% submitted baseline data for analysis. Out of that, only 25% are in compliance. The Commerce Minister urged compliance and appealed to the private sector and Chamber of Commerce Lobby to cooperate with the government. That even among the compliant businesses, the full 12.5% reduction has not been passed on to the consumer. Based on data extrapolated from the analysis conducted by our department, markups on sanitary products range from a whopping 90% to 155%, Mr. Speaker. As the government works to end period poverty, policy decisions include the eventual addition of sanitary towels, napkins and other menstrual hygiene products on the government's designated list of priced control goods.