The Ministry of Strategy and Finance said Monday that it proposed amendments to customs legislations allowing the expansion of duty free shops operated by small and medium enterprises.

The revision also included downsizing duty free shops owned by conglomerates such as Lotte and Shinsegae, and restricting them to maintain a market share below 60 percent.

SMEs, meanwhile, will be able to see the benefits from this revision that will allow an increase in the number of their shops to account for more than 20 percent currently from about 15 percent.

The bill will allow them to expand to grab more than 30 percent of the market by 2018, which means that conglomerates would need to prepare scaling back their stores.

The government plans to relax licensing regulations for SMEs, and levy fees on duty free operations according to their sales not the size of their stores.

(hkp@heraldcorp.com)