The Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos has authorized a value-added tax refund programme for foreign tourists by next year to attract more visitors, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said on Sunday.
The government asks for a 12% VAT on goods consumed within the Southeast Asian country. The plan is to allow foreigners to receive a VAT refund on items they are carrying from the Philippines, identical to what the majority of other countries offer.
The measure is among the proposals a private sector advisory council suggested to Marcos recently to buoy up the tourism industry, including promoting tourism investment and improving airport infrastructure and operations, the PCO said in a statement.
Marcos has also authorized the launch of an online visa this year for Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and South Korean tourists, it said.
The Philippines recorded 2.65 million international tourists in 2022, who raked in an estimated $3.68 billion in revenue, topping its 2022 target of 1.7 million tourists, according to the Department of Tourism.
Buy Crypto NowLast year’s total consisted of 2.02 million foreign nationals and 628,445 Filipinos based abroad, which compared with only 163,879 tourists recorded in the year before and was still substantially lower than the pre-pandemic annual level of 8.26 million.
The government aims to increase visitor arrivals in 2023 to 4.8 million tourists.
