If you are visiting ‘God’s Own Country’ this festive season, be ready to take advantage of better bargains too. In a bid to encourage shopping, Kerala Government is celebrating 48-day long ‘Grand Kerala Shopping Festival’ (GKSF) from December 15 onwards.
Visitors to the state can get a complete reimbursement of 10 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) for purchases during the festival period. To avail this facility, the tourists should use their credit or debit card for the transaction, GKSF director U.V. Jose said at a press conference here on Wednesday.
“Only tourists visiting Kerala can avail this VAT reimbursement and we can identify the domicile of these shoppers through their bank accounts,” Mr. Jose explained. Apart from the VAT reimbursement, there will be separate festival discounts and shoppers can also win gold coins through lucky draws, he said. A total of 101 kg of gold will be disbursed through these lucky draws, he said.
“Customers can win a number of prizes and gifts through high-value gifts, scratch cards offering gold, GKSF merchandise, sponsored vouchers, daily prizes through SMS and weekly draws,” he said.
As part of the festival, a 15-day long ‘Global Village’ will be set-up at Kochi from December 22.
Mr. Jose was in Hyderabad as part of the road show being organised to popularise the GKSF.
The road show was flagged-off at Delhi on November 15 and will reach Kerala on December 15, in time for the inauguration of the festival.
For further details about the festival visit GKSF ‘www.shoppingfestival.in’ or call toll-free number 0 4444 44 4444.
