As part of Baku Shopping Festival, buyers spend over 6M manats

By Azernews

By Amina Nazarli

The first-ever Baku Shopping Festival running in the capital has aroused great interest in the country and entire region.

More and more tourists are heading to the capital of Azerbaijan to enjoy the opportunities the festival offers. During the Festival, which includes shopping, entertainment, fashion and culture, many city malls offer special discounts, Tax Free, and temporary pop-up shops present a broad range of Azerbaijani and foreign brands.

Since the beginning of the Baku Shopping Festival on April 10,  the Taxes Ministry returned over 612,970 manat ($365,641) as VAT.

The total sales amounted to approximately 6.3 million manats ($3.75 million), which means that 10 percent of the funds spent by the buyers were returned. The ministry reported that the citizens of the republic provided 7,397 VAT invoices, and foreigners - 505.

Facilities that have joined the VAT refund system will have special stickers entitled “Baku Shopping Festival - Tax Free.” VAT will be refunded only to those buyers, who purchased the goods at the facilities with such a sticker.

During the festival, a buyer [Azerbaijani citizens or foreigners] can have the VAT refunded at the banks in case the amount of the purchased goods exceeds 100 manats ($58) [including VAT].

Buyers can obtain a refund of the VAT paid on the goods purchased during the day, when the purchase was made. VAT refund can be obtained either in cash or in non-cash by transfer to a card or bank account.

VAT can be refunded in the 15 branches of five banks - Kapital Bank, PASHA Bank, Yapi Kredi Bank Azerbaijan, Bank Silk Way and Azerbaijan Industry Bank.

Besides, the Taxes Ministry of Azerbaijan has set up special VAT kiosks [for registration of Tax Free documents] during the Festival.

The Shopping Festivals are being promoted as tourism products worldwide, thus attracting large number of tourists to the country.  Recent years have seen the shopping gaining greater significance in tourism, given its contribution to the retail and tourism sectors of a destination.

The  Baku Shopping Festival will last until May 10.