THE State Council has approved 19 new duty-free shops for domestic shoppers, including five in Shenzhen, according to a release by the Ministry of Finance (MOF) on Monday.

    The duty-free shops include one at the Shenzhen airport and four others at Futian Checkpoint, Huanggang Checkpoint, Shatoujiao Checkpoint and Wenjindu Checkpoint, respectively.

    Passengers can carry up to 8,000 yuan (US$1,230) worth of duty-free goods, up from the previous 5,000-yuan limit, when going through customs, the MOF said.

    Other duty-free shops will open at 12 other airports, including Guangzhou’s Baiyun, Hangzhou’s Xiaoshan, Chengdu’s Shuangliu, Qingdao’s Liuting and two border checkpoints in Zhuhai and Heihe in Heilongjiang Province.

    The move is to satisfy mainland shoppers who want overseas products, the MOF said.

    The new shops have more products than existing duty-free outlets in the country, the MOF said.

    According to the Shenzhen Port Office, a departure tax rebate office will also be built near Shenzhen airport for overseas buyers in Shenzhen to get tax rebates before leaving the mainland.

    Duty-free products will include cigarettes, cosmetics, liquor, watches, bags, formula milk and glasses. Enterprises which operate the shops at airports or checkpoints must have duty-free shop qualification certificates issued by the State Council and a three-year history of operating duty-free shops.

    Statistics show overseas trips of Chinese citizens in 2014 exceeded 100 million. In 2016 Spring Festival, 6 million citizens went abroad, hitting a new record. At present, inbound duty-free shops are limited to a few cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Kunming, Haikou and Xiamen, serving ordinary citizens who return from overseas trips.

    (Han Ximin)