Mauritius giving tourists “Tax Refunds” to shop

Travel to the island nation of Mauritius brings visions of beautiful oceans, sunny skies, warm breezes, and shopping!

Travel to the island nation of Mauritius brings visions of beautiful oceans, sunny skies, warm breezes, and shopping! For some anyway, a trip to anywhere is not complete without checking out the shopping scene. And one of the best ways to shop when traveling is to give oneself what Mauritius tourism likes to call a “Tax Refund.” Let’s explore this delightful program on offer by Mauritius.

Downtown Duty Free

Under its Downtown Duty Free scheme, Mauritius allows foreign visitors to enjoy island-wide duty-free shopping, which gives them more choice and ample time to make their purchases. In addition to foreign visitors, embassy personnel and expatriates are also eligible for Downtown Duty-Free shopping, provided that they have a foreign passport. Downtown Duty-Free shopping is available in the following product categories: apparel, confectionery, cosmetics, electronics, liquor, and souvenirs. Around fifty shops in Mauritius provide duty-free and duty-paid facilities, and to benefit from these facilities, goods must be purchased from shops displaying the “Tax Refund” logo.


Duty-Free Shopping

On making their purchase, all visitors need to get a Duty-Free sales receipt DF4 from the shop. They have to give their nationality, foreign passport number, date of departure, and flight/voyage number, all of which will be entered on the DF4 receipt.

At the airport, after going through passport and security control, and before embarking, the visitors present the DF4 receipt at the MCCI “Tax Refund” counter to retrieve their purchased goods from counter staff under customs control.

The procedure for cruise ships depends on the individual arrangements made between the ship’s captain and the relevant Mauritian authorities at the point of calling.



Duty/VAT-Paid Shopping

Visitors wishing to take possession of their purchases may purchase the goods duty and VAT paid and have the tax refunded on departure from Mauritius.

Again, to benefit from this refund, on making their purchase, the visitors have to give their nationality, foreign passport number, date of departure and flight/voyage number, all of which will be entered on the DF5 receipt together with the amount of duty/VAT to be refunded.

At the airport, the visitors must show the purchased goods to the MRA Customs counter staff and get the DF5 receipt stamped before proceeding to the check-in counter for their flight.

After going through passport and security control, the visitors present the stamped DF5 receipt to the MCCI Tax Refund counter to get their refund, less an administrative fee in foreign currency (EUR, GBP, USD, or ZAR).

The procedure for cruise ships depends on the individual arrangements made between the ship’s captain and the relevant Mauritian authorities at the point of calling.

With so many options to shop with a “Tax Refund,” along with the beauty of the island of course, there are so many reasons to shop ‘til you drop when visiting Mauritius… and oh, what a way to go!

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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