Azernews.Az

By Sara Israfilbayova

Non-cash payments in Azerbaijan increased eightfold as a result of tourist flow during the Baku Shopping Festival.

During the festival, the volume of non-cash payments increased by 800 percent, said Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfas Garayev said, speaking at the open day of the Convention Bureau of Azerbaijan.

“President Ilham Aliyev in a recent speech, said that the volume of non-cash payments in Azerbaijan increased by 70 percent due to the development of tourism, which is a large figure, however, only during the festival in comparison with other years the jump in non-cash payments amounted to several hundred percent,” the minister stressed.

Garayev went on to say that already more than 20 million people have received information on the festival through the Internet, adding that the goal is to bring to Azerbaijan at least 10 percent of these people.

The first Shopping Festival was held in Baku from April 10 to May 10, 2017. The second Shopping Festival took place from October 15 to November 15, 2017.

Azerbaijani and foreign guests, who made purchases worth more than 100 manats ($58.8) in stores labeled with the “Baku Shopping Festival - Tax Free” stickers, got an opportunity to return a certain part of the value-added tax (VAT) from the amount spent.

The certain part of the VAT amount was refunded in cash or by transfer to a customer’s card/bank account.

Earlier, it was reported that local banks returned to the participants of the second BSF VAT in the amount of 3.37 million manats ($1.98 million).

Moreover, during the second festival 204,686 tourist visited the country, which is 13 percent more compared to the same period last year.

The Azerbaijani government adopted the law “On non-cash payments” in order to strengthen accounting in the financial system, through the development of non-cash payments.

The law envisages a limit for cashing operations. Banks and postal operators will charge a simplified tax (1 percent of the sum) to cash means kept in bank accounts of legal entities and private entrepreneurs.

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