The largest duty-free shop in downtown Shanghai is very popular, so you must enter with an appointment ticket from tomorrow.

At 10: 30 am on August 8, at the entrance of Zhongfu Shanghai Duty Free Shop, a large number of customers lined up to shop in the store. The Paper reporter Zang Mingtu

Customers with self-service customs clearance can’t shop, the price advantage is questioned, and the queue order at the checkout counter is not ideal … Despite all kinds of complaints, the popularity of Zhongfu Shanghai Duty Free Shop (hereinafter referred to as "Duty Free Shop"), which started trial operation at 10 am on August 8, is bursting.

The largest duty-free shop in downtown Shanghai is located at 889 Square, yueda, Caojiadu, Jing ‘an District. Before 10 o’clock, there was a long queue of nearly 200 people at the entrance of the duty-free shop. When the door opens at 10 o’clock, after the first batch of customers enter the store, the store will start to restrict the flow, and a group of customers will enter the store about every 15 minutes.

On the afternoon of the same day, the person in charge of yueda 889 Square told the reporter of The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) that customers must enter the duty-free shop with an appointment ticket tomorrow. There are more than 1000 reservation tickets for tomorrow, which were distributed at 14: 00 on the same day. Customers who don’t have an appointment voucher can get an appointment voucher the day after tomorrow at the duty-free shop.

Self-service customs clearance customers cannot check out.

According to the on-site reminder, the shopping objects in duty-free foreign exchange goods are China tourists with passports, including diplomats, returned overseas students, foreign aid workers, laborers, ocean-going crew members and public servants with official passports in diplomatic institutions. Passengers of China nationality who have reached the age of 16 and entered the country with their passports can buy duty-free foreign exchange goods within the limited value set by the customs at the duty-free shop within 180 days from the date of entry.

Shopping identification cards issued by duty-free shops to customers. The Paper reporter Zang Mingtu

When shopping in duty-free shops, you must first go to the service desk for examination with your passport and other documents and get a shopping identification card. The on-site staff reminded customers that even if they didn’t shop on the same day, they used up the "one-time" opportunity in "one-time purchase of duty-free goods within the limits set by the customs with passports within 180 days from the date of entry", that is, they could not come to buy again.

Duty-free shops require passports to have entry stamps, which makes many self-service customs clearance customers lose "one-time" shopping opportunities.

Recently, the border inspection department has fully realized self-service customs clearance at terminals T1 and T2 of Shanghai Pudong Airport. Inbound passengers with China electronic passports and Hong Kong and Macao residents’ passes to and from the Mainland can complete the self-service customs clearance procedures within 12 seconds. Since there is almost no need to queue up, self-service customs clearance at entry has become the first choice for passengers with China electronic passports to return to China recently. Because of the self-service customs clearance, these passengers have no entry stamps on their passports.

On August 8th, a reporter from The Paper saw in the duty-free shop that many customers were stuck in front of the checkout counter because their passports didn’t have entry stamps, so they couldn’t check out and pick up the goods.

"Since the passport for self-service customs clearance cannot be purchased (duty-free shop goods), why did you pass the inspection with the same passport at the beginning? So I missed the shopping opportunity of duty-free shops. What should I do? " A customer questioned.

In the face of similar dissatisfaction from many customers, the cashier staff still insisted: "Shopping must have an oval entry stamp with China border inspection cover, but we can’t use electronic stamps here.When you (the customer) return to China next time, ask the border inspector to put a stamp on the electronic sign. "

In this regard, some customers spit out: "It was originally Bali who traveled back to China to replenish some goods, queued for half an hour to enter the store, queued for passport inspection, selected goods, came to the cashier, and the cash register was down, and the queue arrived, only to say that the passport for self-service customs clearance could not be purchased, and also said that it was not common to go abroad."

Some customers said: "Although there is no entry stamp for entry self-service customs clearance, I have an exit stamp, which is within 180 days, and I am standing here now. Can’t I prove that I have entered the country?"

The Paper reporter noticed that some customers are ready to "rub" other people’s passports for shopping after selecting goods. For such "private cooperation", duty-free shop staff did not interfere.

Except for many customers who can’t pay for self-service customs clearance, the cash register on the second floor of the duty-free shop was down for a time, which led to the longer and longer queue of customers paying bills. Moreover, due to the circular structure of the duty-free shop cashier, many later customers could not find the end of the queue. The on-site staff reminded customers to queue orderly, but when customers asked where the end of the queue was, the staff also said that they didn’t know.

Some purchasing behaviors have legal risks.

The Paper reporter noticed that some customers took pictures of goods in duty-free shops and started a "purchasing".

In this regard, Ge Zhihao, a lawyer of Beijing Guantao (Shanghai) Law Firm, said that the duty-free shops opened in urban areas are not "completely and unconditionally open" to domestic citizens, but are accompanied by preconditions, including the purpose of the goods purchased by consumers here and the total value of the goods purchased.

According to the law, the purpose of setting up duty-free shops is to take care of the reasonable needs of individuals to import goods for their own use, and then to exempt consumers from customs duties, value-added tax, consumption tax, etc. The starting point is to make it clear that the ultimate purpose of goods purchased by individuals is not to put them in circulation. Secondly, the customs also clearly stipulates the amount of personal tax exemption, mainly based on the announcement of the General Administration of Customs (No.54, 2010) that goods for personal use, except tobacco products, alcoholic products and 20 kinds of goods that should be taxed by the state, can enjoy tax exemption within a total value of 5,000 yuan.

Ge Zhihao believes that "personal purchasing" should be treated differently in three situations. First, purchasing is essentially a personal consumption, and then the goods are donated, so under the premise that the total value of the purchased goods does not exceed the limit, this behavior is legal. Secondly, assuming that the ultimate goal of purchasing is to seek economic benefits by reselling related goods in the name of personal consumption, it is essentially a sales behavior, obviously not the "convenience" object of tax exemption policy, but should be regulated by relevant tax laws in China. Third, the so-called "purchasing" means personal consumption under the guise of someone else’s passport, so because the actual consumers themselves do not have the qualification to enjoy the exemption policy, their consumption behavior is suspected of tax evasion.

In addition, according to the relevant provisions of the criminal law, if an individual fails to declare a large amount of tax payment by deception or concealment, accounting for more than 10% of the taxable amount, he will also be suspected of tax evasion. Therefore, some "personal purchasing" behaviors have great legal risks.

You must enter the store with an appointment ticket tomorrow.

On August 8, some customers suggested that the goods in duty-free shops were not cheap.

For example, a customer told the The Paper reporter that the price of a suit of a certain brand of cosmetics in the duty-free shop is 698 yuan. "This price, don’t compare with the origin of the United States, it has no price advantage over Hong Kong." Another customer said that taking a backpack of a certain brand as an example, the price of duty-free shops exceeds that of 1000 yuan, and a shopping mall in Jing ‘an Temple nearby is on sale. The discounted price of backpacks is around 600 yuan. "Of course, it is not exactly the same style, but the style is similar."

Regarding the price advantage of duty-free shops, the shop assistant said that cosmetics are about 30% cheaper than counters in Shanghai; Compared with the duty-free shops in Pudong Airport, some goods are expensive and some are cheap.

In addition, some customers told The Paper that there is milk powder on the second floor of the duty-free shop, which is much cheaper than the market price, but the brand is single. Take a section of milk powder as an example. The price of duty-free shop is 280 yuan, and the market price is 346 yuan. For the single brand of milk powder, the salesperson said that because the quality of milk powder of this brand is better. However, many customers told The Paper that the baby at home is not drinking this brand of milk powder, and they are not going to change the milk powder for the baby, so they are not going to buy it.

On the first day of opening, the largest duty-free shop in downtown Shanghai was full of popularity, despite the fact that customers with self-service customs clearance could not shop, the queuing order at the checkout counter was not ideal, and the price advantage was questioned by customers.

The person in charge of yueda 889 Square, where the duty-free shop is located, told the The Paper that a large number of customers lined up outside the duty-free shop on the first day of opening.Customers must enter the duty-free shop with an appointment voucher tomorrow. Reservation tickets were issued from 12: 00 on the same day and were issued at 14: 00, with more than 1,000 tickets issued. Customers who don’t have an appointment voucher can get an appointment voucher the day after tomorrow at the duty-free shop.