Mainland Chinese tourists visiting Macao and Hong Kong will soon be able to purchase even more duty-free goods from the two SARs after the central government announced that it will be raising the duty-free threshold from the current 5,000 yuan to 12,000 yuan at six border crossings starting from 1 July 2024.
According to a joint announcement published this morning by China’s finance, customs and taxation departments, the new limit will initially cover the Gongbei Port, the Zhuhai exit of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, as well as crossings located in Luohu, Futian, Shenzhen Bay and West Kowloon.
It will then apply to all other checkpoints between mainland China and the two SARs from 1 August.
The new regulation is applicable to personal purchases made per visit by mainland Chinese residents who are 18 or above. For those who shop at the duty free shops situated at the border crossings, the threshold will be lifted to 15,000 yuan.
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Although the threshold increase comes as welcome news to local businesses, it still falls short of the 30,000 yuan figure that members from the tourism and retail industry sector in Hong Kong were calling for.
According to the South China Morning Post, there was speculation that a 30,000 yuan rise in the duty-free limit would open the door to an annual 100,000 yuan quota that would put the SARs on par with Hainan province.
In response to the rising of the duty-free limits, the Macao government issued a statement today, noting that the “measure will help to drive the growth of tourism consumption and benefit even more small and medium enterprises in the city.”
Tourism spending in Macao has remained strong since the end of Covid travel restrictions, with recent government data indicating that the spending for the first quarter of this year totalled 20.3 billion patacas, a jump of almost 36 percent year-on-year.
