Korea Customs Service Allows Domestic Sales of Duty-Free Shops' 'Inventory Duty-Free Goods'

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Korea Customs Service will temporarily allow the domestic sale of stock duty-free goods that have completed import customs clearance. This is a measure to reduce the burden on the industry, which has seen a decline in sales due to the prolonged spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

According to the Korea Customs Service on the 29th, duty-free goods have so far only been allowed to be discarded or returned to suppliers even if stock remained, due to restrictions on handling duty-free store inventory. Items sold at duty-free shops have been sold only to foreign tourists and departing domestic travelers at prices excluding customs duties and value-added tax, without import customs clearance.

However, recently, with inbound and outbound travelers decreasing by 93% (compared to the same period last year as of last month) due to COVID-19, the duty-free industry is experiencing unprecedented difficulties.

For the same reason, the Korea Customs Service has decided to accept the industry's urgent request to allow the domestic sale of duty-free store inventory, enabling temporary domestic sales.

However, this reflects the decision of the Korea Customs Service's Active Administration Support Committee, which includes more than half private external members, and the Customs Service added a condition that it will only be allowed for goods that have remained in stock for more than six months to minimize the impact on the domestic market.

Also, for the domestic distribution of stock duty-free goods, import declaration and tax payment must be completed after meeting the import requirements, just like general imported goods.

Above all, the Korea Customs Service will implement the stock duty-free goods import customs clearance guidelines immediately upon announcement to ensure that this improvement plan can provide practical help to the duty-free industry.

With this measure, it is expected that when 20% of the long-term inventory excessively held by duty-free shops is consumed, the industry will be able to secure additional liquidity of about 160 billion KRW.

Meanwhile, to quickly support the duty-free industry's overcoming of the COVID-19 crisis, the Korea Customs Service has been taking measures since February, such as abolishing purchase quantity limits, extending the payment deadline for duty-free shop license fees, and supporting the sale of domestic duty-free goods by easing export delivery location usage requirements.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.