Source of data: Beijing Municipal Taxation Bureau, Shanghai Municipal Taxation Bureau, Guangzhou Municipal Taxation Bureau Map: Wang Zheping

　　During the May Day holiday just passed, overseas tourists consumed strongly inbound tax refunds, and departing tax refunds were highly praised. During the May Day holiday, UnionPay and Internet Services handled the number and amount of payment transactions and transactions for overseas personnel coming to China increased by 244.86% and 128.04% respectively compared with the same period last year.

　　Recently, the Ministry of Commerce and six other departments have introduced measures to further optimize the tax refund policy for departure and expand inbound consumption, so that overseas tourists can have more good shops and buy more good things, making it more convenient to apply for tax refunds. The new policy for departure tax refunds has been implemented in many places, and the enthusiasm for consumption by overseas tourists has been further ignited.

　　--editor

　　Stimulate small and medium-sized consumption and increase purchase frequency

　　"Now we come to Guangzhou, the visa-free transit time is 240 hours, which is very convenient." As the "China Travel" continues to be popular, on the eve of the May Day holiday, Azim, a traveler from Pakistan, went to Guangzhou, Guangdong with his friends to visit, and checked in popular attractions such as Guangzhou Tower.

　　During the trip, Azim and his friends went shopping in Tianhe Road business district again. "I didn't expect that I could get a tax refund if I bought a pair of shoes, and I could get a tax refund in the store." In a Chinese brand shoe store, Azim took a fancy to a sneaker worth more than 300 yuan and paid immediately. Under the guidance of the store staff, he clicked on the application to upload passport information, bind a credit card, upload a tax refund form and invoice. In a short while, he received a tax refund of more than 30 yuan in the card.

　　At present, there are 365 outbound tax refund stores in Guangzhou, of which the "buy now and refund" stores have expanded to 67. According to statistics, during the May Day holiday, the tax refund application form for overseas passengers issued by Guangzhou increased by 125% year-on-year.

　　"The starting and refund point has been reduced from 500 yuan to 200 yuan, which encourages overseas tourists to purchase goods with lower unit prices, such as specialties, cultural and creative products, souvenirs, etc., which will help expand the consumption scenarios of offshore tax refund coverage, promote small consumption, and increase the frequency of purchases." Wang Tingting, associate professor at the School of Economics and Law of Southwest University of Political Science and Law, said that at the same time, the increase in the cash tax refund limit to 20,000 yuan means that passengers have more working capital to purchase goods, and combine flexible payment methods such as mobile payment and bank cards to improve tourists' shopping experience.

　　In early April this year, the State Administration of Taxation promoted the "buy now and refund" service measure nationwide. "The lowering of the tax refund threshold can stimulate small and medium-sized consumption, and the combined "buy and refund" shortens the capital occupation cycle, which is expected to form a closed loop of "consumption-tax refund-reconsumption", effectively promote secondary consumption and bring more benefits to overseas tourists." Wang Tingting said that optimizing the departure tax refund policy is an important measure to implement the country to promote inbound consumption and boost the economy, and can effectively solve the problem of bottlenecks and checkpoints reflected by inbound passengers, and form a combination of policies such as 240-hour transit visa-free and cross-border payment facilitation, which is conducive to the transformation from "tourism fever" to "consumption fever".

　　Domestic trendy products are emerging, electronic products are favored

　　"The video of Chongqing monorail passing through the building is very popular, it's so wonderful." Huang Zhenxin, a Filipino photography enthusiast who is traveling in Chongqing, said that she plans to come to China again in the future and go to more places to see it.

　　Chongqing’s charm amazes overseas travelers, and “city gifts” and “must-buy and must-brand” are also full of sincerity.

　　At the Chongqing Bai Trading Club Electric Appliance Jiefangbei Shopping Mall Store, Huang Zhenxin bought a Huawei phone. "I have always liked digital products. The electronic products produced in China are of good quality and are very popular in the Philippines."

　　At Chongqing Starlight 68 Square, Bogdanov Victor, a traveler from Russia, also returned with a full load. "Tea, silk, handbags, the products I selected are all very Chinese and have exquisite designs. I bought them and gave them to my family."

　　From Chinese-style products such as tea, silk, clothing, to electronic products such as smart watches, cameras, and mobile phones, the variety of products that attract overseas tourists to purchase is more abundant, which not only promotes the growth of inbound consumption, but also helps to promote more domestic trendy products to the international market.

　　As one of the first batch of tax refund stores for departures in Shenzhen, Guangdong, Shundian Vientiane City Store is very popular among overseas travelers. "In the first four months of this year, the tax refund business volume in our store increased by 500% compared with the same period last year. The departure tax refund policy has been continuously optimized, which has made overseas travelers feel full of gain." said store manager Wang Yali.

　　Not long ago, Shenzhen released the ninth list of departure tax refund stores, and 72 stores including Xiaomi Home and Shundian were selected, covering various categories such as electronic consumer products, fashion clothing, and home products. Data shows that in Shenzhen, the sales of local brands' departure tax refunds increased by 30.45% year-on-year in 2024. In the first quarter, Shenzhen's departure tax refund amount increased by nearly 150% year-on-year, reaching 40% of the whole year last year.

　　"From 'Chinese shopping abroad' to 'foreign travelers moving domestic products', the competitiveness of Chinese brands is constantly improving." Wang Tingting said that vigorously adding "time-honored brands", intangible cultural heritage, special cultural and creative products and boutique domestic brands can not only meet the in-depth experience needs of overseas tourists for the excellent traditional Chinese culture, but also promote high-end domestic products, enhance the competitiveness of domestic products in the global consumer market, and promote the upgrade from "Made in China" to "Chinese brand".

　　Improve order opening speed and simplify operation process

　　"Tax refund is so fast!" In a shop in Parkson Shopping Mall on Chunxi Road, Chengdu, Sichuan, a traveler from Singapore bought a sunscreen for more than 200 yuan.

　　"We issue a VAT invoice after the customer's payment is completed. Then log in to the departure tax refund information system, and the shopping invoice information will be automatically brought in without manual input; after verifying the information, you can print the departure tax refund application form. The optimization and upgrading of the departure tax refund management system has also brought convenience to our merchants." Xiao Chunmei, the manager of a brand store in Parkson Mall, said.

　　"Buy now and refund" allows overseas passengers to get tax refunds during the shopping process; the optimization and improvement of the departure tax refund management system has improved the order opening speed and shortened the waiting time for passengers. Nowadays, from payment, issuance to tax refunds and verification, departure tax refunds are more convenient in all aspects.

　　It is reported that China UnionPay currently provides three departure tax refund modes, providing users with UnionPay card, Cloud Flash Pay APP and self-service card number to rebate. These models have covered two scenarios: airport and port tax refund and urban areas immediately to buy and refund. UnionPay tax refund support is directly refunded to overseas UnionPay cards, and can be recorded in real time as soon as possible. At the same time, it is also accelerating the promotion of multiple overseas UnionPay cooperation wallets to support scanning codes for tax refunds, and simplifying the user's tax refund operation process.

　　Recently, Shenzhen has piloted the implementation of the "one-single-one-pack" convenience model for departure tax refunds, that is, a tax refund application form corresponds to a product sealed package. During the shopping and consumption process, the store uses standard sealed bags to pack and corresponds to the tax refund application form; during the port exit process, the customs checks the integrity of the sealed bags and then releases them according to regulations. "When applying for a tax refund for departures before, the staff of each item had to check carefully. When encountering peak passenger flow or shopping, the waiting time would be long. Now, just confirm that the sealed bag is intact, it can pass quickly, which is more convenient." said Mr. Chen, a Hong Kong traveler in China.

　　Wang Tingting suggested that while promoting the "buy-and-refund" service, we must continue to increase efforts to set up centralized refund points in large business districts, scenic spots and other places to improve passenger tax refund experience; strengthen the digital and intelligent upgrade of tax refund facilities, and realize automatic acquisition and verification of invoice information through blockchain, large models and other technologies, promote the digital upgrade of the entire process of order issuance, tax refund and payment, and further improve the convenience of tax refunds. (Reporter Wang Guan)

[Editor in charge: Zhou Jingjie]