China News Service, February 4, Gao Feng, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce, pointed out today that in the past month, Hainan has opened 5 new duty-free shops on outlying islands. The total number of shops currently in operation has reached 9 and the passenger carrying capacity has been greatly enhanced.
The market entities of duty-free shops in outlying islands are becoming increasingly diversified. In addition to CDF and HaiFeng, there have also been the addition of China Export Service, Shenzhen Freedom, Overseas Travel Investment and global boutique companies. The orderly competition pattern of Hainan's outlying island duty-free market is gradually taking shape.
On the 4th, the Ministry of Commerce held a regular press conference.
At the meeting, a reporter asked: How does the Ministry of Commerce view the boom in duty-free shops?
What are the considerations for increasing departure tax rebates and outlying island tax exemptions in the future?
Gao Feng made the above statement when answering this question.
He also introduced that according to customs statistics, the total annual sales of duty-free Hainan Islands in 2020 was 27.48 billion yuan, an increase of 103.7%; the actual number of duty-free shopping was 4.484 million, an increase of 19.2%; the number of duty-free shopping was 34.1 million, an increase of year-on-year 87.4%.
The attractiveness of duty-free shopping on outlying islands has increased significantly, which has played a positive role in guiding overseas consumption to return.
Gao Feng mentioned that in the next step, the Ministry of Commerce will actively cooperate with the Ministry of Finance and other departments in accordance with the requirements of the Action Plan for Building a High Standard Market System to further improve the management of Hainan’s outlying island duty-free shops, implement the reform requirements of “decentralization, management and service”, and support Hainan Province has played a greater role in the duty-free work on outlying islands, promoted the full release of Hainan outlying islands’ tax-free dividends, and actively guided the return of overseas consumption to provide strong support for the construction of Hainan’s free trade port.