Shanghai reports soaring departure tax refund growth

SHANGHAI, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Shanghai has seen a significant surge in the value of goods that underwent verification for tax refunds in the first eight months of this year, according to local customs on Friday.

The total value of tax refund goods reached 2.07 billion yuan (about 290 million U.S. dollars), marking an 83 percent increase year on year, already surpassing last year's total.

This growth is attributable to policy measures that have streamlined the tax refund process for departing passengers, said Shanghai Customs.

This means that on average, each application at Shanghai's ports has claimed tax refunds on goods worth over 20,000 yuan, with an average refund of over 2,300 yuan per application. This reflects the rising appeal of shopping and other forms of consumption among inbound tourists in China.

Shanghai was one of the first cities in the country to pilot the tax refund policy for departing passengers. Since the implementation of tax refund verification at ports of departure on July 1, 2015, the city's volume of such verifications has accounted for about half of China's total and has consistently ranked first among all ports in the country.

By the end of August, the number of tax refund stores in Shanghai had increased from 777 by the end of last year to over 1,530, nearly doubling and covering all 16 districts across the city.