Next Baku Shopping Festival starts
By Sara Israfilbayova
Baku Shopping Festival continues to please fans with the third edition kicked off on May 1 and to run until May 31.
Azerbaijanis and foreign guests, who made purchases worth more than 100 manats in stores labeled with the “Baku Shopping Festival - Tax Free” stickers, get an opportunity to return a certain part of the value-added tax (VAT) from the amount spent. VAT refund is only possible in the stores labeled with the stickers. The certain part of the VAT amount can be refunded in cash or by transfer to a customer’s card/bank account.
About 800 stores in Baku will join the Festival this time. In addition, during the Festival, it is planned to organize a lottery, games, fashion shows and other events where participants can win valuable gifts.
For the first time, the Baku Shopping Festival was held April 10-May 10, 2017, the 2nd Festival was held from October 15 to November 15.
Being held twice per year since 2017, during whole month, Baku Shopping Festival offers Azerbaijani citizens and the guests of the city unique shopping opportunities. From the first Festival till the moment The Baku Shopping Festival has achieved great success on international trade markets and received positive feedback from the local buyers.
The project achieved quite a success and gained trust of the buyers in a very short period of time not only in Azerbaijan, but also in the CIS countries. Two shopping festivals were held in spring and autumn of 2017. More than 600 stores have joined the network of the official participants of the festival so far.
Within the framework of the festival 71,331 transactions have been approved for return of the money by the system of Tax Free and more than 6,500 tourists have benefited from tax free system along the local buyers.
According to the decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, from September 1, 2016, Azerbaijan Convention Bureau of Azerbaijan under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism is charged to organize Baku Shopping Festivals.
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Sara Israfilbayova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Sara_999Is
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