Laws of the People's Republic of China

The General Administration of Customs

Circular of the General Administration of Customs on Improving the Work of Export Taxes Refund to Foster Export Trade

ShuTong [1999] No.339

May 12, 1999

The General Administration of Customs Guangdong Branch, departments and sections of variaus Customs directly under the General Administration of Customs:

The policy of export Taxes refund is an important measure adopted by the to promote exports. In order to speed up the work of export refund, encourage enterprises to enlarge exports and guarantee the implementation of the State's policy of export refund, the General Administration of Customs hereby notifies as follows:

1.

Speeding up the Electronic Data Interchange for Export Manifests

(1)

For the ports where the electronic data interchange for manifests has already realized, the various Customs should take vigorous action to strengthen the connection and coordination with the port office, the airline, the railway, the shipping agent, the forwarding agent and other related sectors, establish a regular liaison system, formulate jointly concrete asfeguarding measures for data interchange and make regular inspection so as to secure the promptness and correctness of data interchange.

(2)

For the ports where the electronic data interchange for manifests has not been realized so far, the various Customs should accelerate the installation of H883/EDI System (version 5.0) to handle the issues like manifest entry and the cancellation after verification of Customs declaration. The General Administration of Customs is now working for the development of unified network delivering software and the solution to the problems of communications and identification through public network, so as to completely realize the electronic data interchange for manifests. At present the various Customs must adopt the interim measure of imputting manifest data by hand and verifying manifest data by the H883/EDI System.

2.

Achieving at an Early Date the Goal of Providing the State Taxation Departments with Real Time Electronic Data of Declaration

The General Administration of Customs has decided to extend the use of Export Declaration Network Verifying System among the various Customs throughout the country from January 1, 2000, achieving through the network the goal of providing the State taxation departments with real time electronic data of the certified note of the export declaration so as to improve the promptness and correctness of verifying the declaration. The clearance management departments of the various Customs shall make correspondent technological and professional preparations in advance to make sure that the system will be used in time by all the Customs throughout the country.

3.

Ensuring That Enterprises Can Receive in Time the Certified Note of Export Refund

The various Customs shall strictly follow the requirement of the General Administration of Customs and finish the cancellation after verification of and the issuing of the certified note of the export declaration in five working days, so as to ensure the export enterprises in receiving the certified note in time. The Customs shall publicize this working time limit as a service promise and accept social supervision.

4.

Improving the Quality of the Electronic Data of the Export Declaration

The procedure of customs clearance shall be standardized and enterprises shall be required to strictly follow the "Declaration Filling-in Norm" when filling in the declaration of import and export goods. The Customs shall specify responsibilities and examine and verify the electronic data carefully to ensure their correctness, so as to avoid any delay in the enterprises' going through the procedure of export refund due to the questionable quality of electronic data. All the on-the-spot Customs shall ensure the consistence of the electronic data with the certified note of the export declaration, the various functional departments of all Customs directly under the General Administration of Customs shall ensure the completeness of the data, the technological divisions shall ensure the smoothness of the network and the entry-exit management divisions of the General Administration of Customs shall ensure the data submitted by all the Customs to be stored and put on the net in time.

5.

Strengthening Technological Gurantee

In the network technological divisions, the entryexit management divisions and the Customs spots, the Customs shall assign specific people and specific telephones to establish the system of on-duty hot line to keep close contact with the Inspection and Control Office of Entry-exit Operation under the General Administration of Customs, so as to handle questionable electronic data and the cancellation after verification of the declaration in time. Enterprises shall be helped to get timely information on export clearance through the network technology and means of communication.

6.

Perfecting the Work of Signing and Issuing the Verified Note of the Transit Declaration

The various Customs shall strictly follow the operation norm of the computer administration system of transit shipment and verify and write off in time the data of transit goods so that the Customs of the departure can get timely information of the exported goods and sign and issue the certified note of the export declaration for enterprises in time. The General Administration of Customs will improve further the administration system of transit shipment and instruct the Customs to install the computer administration system of transit shipment and connect it with the H883/EDI System, so as to respond more promptly to the clearing out of transit goods.

7.

Further Pushing Forward the Construction of Dedicated Network for Ports

The Inormation Management Divisions under the General Administration of Customs shall strengthen further the cooperation with the Ministry of Information Industry, accelerate the construction of dedicated network for state ports, strive to connect the 600-plus grassroots Customs in the whole country with the net by the end of the first half of the year and ensure technologically the smooth exchange of entry data so as to provide correct and prompt service for related sectors and import and export enterprises.