CCTV News: On April 27, the State Information Office held a press conference to introduce the situation of optimizing the departure tax refund policy and expanding inbound consumption.

Jia Rong'e, Director of the Taxation and Administration Department of the Ministry of Finance, said at the meeting that in 2015, in order to promote the development of the tourism industry and provide overseas tourists with a better travel shopping experience, my country has fully implemented the tax refund policy for overseas tourists leaving the country. Foreign tourists can refund VAT for purchases in tax refund stores. Compared with countries and regions that implement departure tax refund policies internationally, this policy has the following characteristics:

First, the tax refund is strong. my country's tax refund for most commodities at 11% of the tax-inclusive price is equivalent to refunding all value-added tax. Not only is the tax refund strong, but it also takes into account the convenience of policy implementation.

The second is that the tax refund product has a wide range. Except for a few items that are prohibited or restricted from leaving the country, all other goods are subject to the tax refund policy, providing overseas travelers with a broader space for product selection.

"Since the implementation of this policy, its tax refund scale has increased year by year, and the effect has gradually emerged. More and more overseas tourists have enjoyed real policy benefits," said Jia Ronge. Jia Ronge also mentioned that this time, the optimization of the departure tax refund policy has increased the policy intensity in terms of expanding the coverage of departure tax refunds and improving the convenience of departure tax refunds, mainly in three aspects:

The first is to reduce the starting point of departure tax refunds. In order to support overseas tourists to purchase more special products, the current tax refund requirement for overseas tourists to purchase tax refund items in the same store on the same day will be significantly reduced to 200 yuan to refund the tax refund.

The second is to increase the amount of cash tax refund. It is mainly to meet the diversified consumption payment needs of overseas travelers and optimize departure tax refund payment services. On the basis of providing various tax refund services such as bank cards, mobile payments, and cash, the amount of cash tax refunds has been increased from the current RMB 10,000 to RMB 20,000. There is no limit on other tax refund methods.

The third is to work with relevant departments to further improve the convenience of tax refund and enhance the attractiveness of the departure tax refund policy by optimizing the layout of tax refund shops, increasing the supply of tax refund products, and optimizing the tax refund processing process.

Jia Ronge said that in the next step, the Ministry of Finance will work with relevant departments to do a solid job in implementing policies, continue to strengthen policy publicity, expand policy effects, and continuously improve the sense of gain and satisfaction of overseas tourists.