Tourists unaffected by new cross-border ecommerce tax

Only 2% of travellers suggested that it might cause them to change their arrangements, ecns.cn reports. The tax-free era of cross-border ecommerce has come to an end as a new system on sales took effect on April 8 2016. Many tourists are saying bag inspections have been more common when they go through customs.

This new tax policy is mainly aimed at ecommerce companies, such as Tmall, JD, and Ymatou, rather than tourists, according to a survey conducted by Ctrip, a travel agency, the source cites. It still allows a CNY 5,000 (USD 771) tax exemption per person, plus a CNY 3,000 (USD 462.6) duty-free allowance at ports of entry and exit, which means travellers can benefit of more flexible non-refundable credit.

Chinese tourists spend CNY 5,830 per person on purchases abroad, which means a tax exemption of CNY 8,000 can satisfy their shopping needs, according to The 2015 Global Travel & Shopping Report released by www.mafengwo.cn, Headlines Today, and the Card Center at the Bank of China. The new tax policy on cross-border ecommerce has had a limited effect on people`s travelling arrangements with bookings for outbound tourism for the upcoming May Day holiday increasing by 50 to 80% month on month, statistics from Ctrip showed.