News from CCTV: Recently, the country’s first batch of full-process departure tax refund self-service kiosks were officially launched in Shenzhen, taking the lead in being deployed at major entry-exit hubs such as Shenzhen Luohu Port and Bao’an International Airport. The commissioning of this batch of self-service machines not only improves the efficiency of tax refund for overseas passengers, but also marks the realization of intelligent and convenient departure tax refund services. This is a departure tax refund point at Shenzhen Luohu Port. These two machines are self-service departure tax refund machines that were just put into use on April 1. There are already people using these two machines on site.

Ms. Wang from Hong Kong came to Luohu Port early in the morning to apply for tax refund. After completing the identity verification, the system quickly processed the document information and generated complete tax refund details. After confirming the amount and selecting the tax refund channel, the tax refund was credited to her account in real time. Ms. Wang, a tourist from Hong Kong, said that it used to take more than ten minutes to apply for tax refund at the counter, but now she does it all by herself and can get it done in two or three minutes. In addition to improving service efficiency, these self-service machines also innovatively provide a tax refund channel called "digital RMB hard wallet". After passengers receive this card at the tax refund machine, they can use it to buy things within the country or take the subway, which is very convenient.

According to the staff of Bank of China Shenzhen Branch, in the past, travelers who used overseas bank cards to apply for departure tax refunds generally had to wait three working days for cross-border fund settlement before receiving the tax refund. Now, after completing the tax refund at the self-service machine, you can directly exchange the tax refund into a hard wallet card of equal amount, eliminating the need for cross-border settlement and achieving "refund and use". Yin Jinchuan, deputy general manager of the personal finance department of Bank of China Shenzhen Branch, said that the departure tax refund self-service machine has achieved full coverage of tax refund channels. Currently, it supports cash, bank cards, digital renminbi, and third-party payment methods such as WeChat and Alipay.

It is understood that in the first two months of 2026, Shenzhen Customs handled 19,000 departure tax refund verification services, and the verification application amount was approximately 310 million yuan, an increase of 10 times and 1.7 times respectively during the same period. Next, Shenzhen will steadily deploy more self-service departure tax refund equipment in major business districts. It will further facilitate tourists to handle the tax refund at their nearest location, allowing more overseas tourists who enter the country to enjoy convenient and intelligent tax refund services.