Photos

China to expand tax rebate program in southern island Hainan

(English.news.cn)
Updated: 2011-05-19 18:00

 

Photo taken on March 23, 2011 shows a customer trying on sun glasses in a duty-free shop in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province. China's Ministry of Finance (MOF) announced Thursday that Hainan will implement a tax rebate program for tourists on a trial basis from April 20. The program targeted tourists 18 years old and above from home and abroad who would like to fly off the island to other places of China and set the rebate cap on commodities with a total value of no more than 5,000 yuan (762 U.S. dollars) per person each time. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)

Hainan hosted nearly 26 million overnight tourists in 2010, 97 percent of whom were domestic tourists, said Wang Keqiang, deputy director of Hainan's provincial commerce bureau.

"Domestic tourists have great purchasing power. Some customers have already come to me to ask about the new tax policy and ask about possible price changes," said Wang Mei, a cosmetics salesperson in a duty-free department store in the city of Sanya.

In 2010, Chinese consumers bought a total of 188 billion yuan in products from overseas markets, while one third of the buyers of luxury goods in the United Kingdom were from China. This shows that a large number of Chinese people's consumption happened overseas, Wang said.

"Once the new tax rebate policy takes effect, domestic consumers can buy products in Hainan instead of going abroad. The consumption potential is tremendous," Wang added.

The tax rebate program will inject the island's tourism industry with vitality, said Wang Yongjun, dean of the finance and economics college of Central University of Finance and Economics.

"The policies try to create a tax-free shopping paradise similar to Hong Kong in Hainan to boost China's tourism," Wang said.

"But whether the policies can benefit Hainan's tourism in a long term or not, will be largely depended on other supporting facilities and the integrated environment of Hainan island," Wang added.