HONG KONG, June 28 (Xinhua) -- The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government on Friday welcomed a new move of the duty-free allowance for luggage articles brought into the Chinese mainland from Hong Kong by visitors who are mainland residents to be increased to 12,000 yuan (about 1,651.39 U.S. dollars).

The current level of the above-mentioned duty-free allowance for luggage articles is 5,000 yuan. Meanwhile, the measure of allowing for additional duty-free goods at the value of 3,000 yuan purchased at port entry duty-free stores will be retained. This brings the total amount of allowance to 15,000 yuan.

The new measure will be applicable to six land ports, including Lo Wu, Futian (Lok Ma Chau Spur Line), Shenzhen Bay, West Kowloon Station of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link, Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and more, starting from July 1, and then be implemented at all ports starting from Aug. 1.

John Lee, chief executive of the HKSAR, said that he was very grateful for the care of the central government and the introduction of various measures to promote Hong Kong's economy.

The new measure will enhance the shopping experience for mainland resident visitors in Hong Kong and allow them greater flexibility when shopping, which is beneficial for Hong Kong in attracting more visitors and boosting the development of diversified tourism, Lee said.

A spokesman for the HKSAR government said that under the new arrangements, it is roughly estimated that this will bring an additional 8.8 billion HK dollars (about 1.12 billion U.S. dollars) to 17.6 billion HK dollars in shopping expenditure to Hong Kong, generating value-added of about 2.7 billion HK dollars to 5.4 billion HK dollars to the Hong Kong economy. (1 U.S. dollar = 7.26 Chinese yuan; 1 U.S. dollar = 7.8 HK dollars) Enditem

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