Retail sector moves to cater for new allowances
The chairwoman of the Retail Management Association, Annie Yau Tse, said on Saturday that the industry will aim to offer more products that cater for the new duty-free shopping allowances announced by Beijing on Friday.  Mainland shoppers heading back to the mainland will see their allowances more than double to 12,000 yuan from 5,000 yuan when returning from Hong Kong and Macau at several border crossings from July 1, and at all checkpoints from August 1. Speaking on a Commercial Radio programme, Yau Tse said that while the increased allowances did not match the annual 100,000 yuan duty-free shopping allowances in the mainland province of Hainan, it's hard to compare the two. "The [duty-free] system in Hainan island is really different from that in Hong Kong. There are different supporting systems for Hainan to achieve such [a quota], as it has real-name systems to keep track of how many things a customer buys," she said. "In addition, the duty-free sales in Hainan are monopolised by one group. In other words, it is much simpler to manage a system within one single group, whereas in Hong Kong, we have so many retailers, all of which are duty-free. So how can we set up one system with them all together? It is challenging..."  Speaking on the same programme, lawmaker Tommy Cheung said that the increase was a gift from Beijing ahead of SAR Establishment Day on July 1. He also urged the government to keep lobbying for allowance increases and an expansion of the multiple-entry limits for mainland visitors.