Ann Tyrol

HK-based flyers will no doubt be aware that as of Wednesday 27th Feb, the 40% tax on imported wine has been scrapped.

Does anyone know whether this means that the current wine limit (1 bottle of wine / 750ml per pax I believe) will also be removed?

For the purposes of this thread, I'm not taking into account Spirits or Beer - I really just want to know about the wine situation.

Cheers

~ AT

newcalvey

Yes, any amount of wine may now be imported by an individual without paying any duty or tax.

hau cheng

For us 'Honkies', that's actually a very pertinent question

QRC3288

YES! This is an amazing day. I had no idea.

christep

Official line here: http://www.customs.gov.hk/eng/advice_advice_e.html

Any amount of anything under 30% alcohol is now OK.

Interestingly, I just priced some wine at Changi for the first time, thinking I might bring a few bottles back. The duty free price of a wine I know was actually 10% higher at Changi than the pre-budget supermarket (not duty free) price in Hong Kong. So on that basis I ain't going to be buying any wine at SIN!

kaka

And in most supermarkets ive seen for these 2 days, the old price had been crossed out with the new price on. (It's sooooo deceptive as it is not the supermarket trying to give us a DISCOUNT. It's the duty that had been taken off!!!)

Ann Tyrol

I have noticed the supermarkets crossing prices, but that's an old HK supermarket trick sometimes - they keep existing prices and add a "crossed" price that the wine never sold at. In any place with consumer protection laws, this would be illegal, but not here...

Am heading to NZ soon and looking forward to stocking up on decent wine

sxc

Probably a function of the quickly depreciating currency?

kaka

yea and they act as if taking 10 cents off some teddy crackers on a multipack is a big deal.

hau cheng

I had a snoop at the Watson's wine shop at Stanley. Some markdowns. VB (beer) cheaper than in australia, though more expensive in the wine shop than the supermarket.

Even though the Henshke Kyneton estate had about HK 200 knocked off it, it is still cheaper in Australian retail outlets. The manager told me that prices will fall even more at some stage.

QRC3288

Yea, Watson's prices are still expensive and haven't reflected a full "duty-less" discount. I went in the other day: Watson's is making the argument that they've paid duty for most of the wine in their stores since it was already imported BEFORE the duty was eliminated. I'm not really sure when they actually assess the duties...if they imported them two weeks ago, and HKIRD actually does assess duty prior to sale for end-merchants, then I guess Watson's is telling the truth. But I also suspect Watson's and other end-retailers of really expensive products may have some type of inventory agreement with the IRD which basically allows them to only pay duty on the wine sold, as sometimes (particularly with cheaper wine) they have agreements with the vineyards which allows them to return unsold product.

hau cheng

Mind you, Rawsons Retreat, et al in ParknShop, cheaper than in Australia.

theworld

that's cause HK has no consumer protection laws. Leave it up to the market to decide.

Ann Tyrol

Indeed, that was my point.

No consumer protection laws and no (proper) anticompetition laws. As a result the charge you whatever they think they can get away with.

newcalvey

Just like the airlines.