Laws of the People's Republic of China

The General Administration of Customs

Decree of the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China

No.79

"Measures for Implementation of the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Customs External Auditing" is hereby promulgated and will come into force on March 1, 2000.

Qian Guanlin, Minister of the General Administration of Customs

January 11,2000

Measures for Implementation of the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Customs External Auditing

Chapter I General Provisions

Article 1

These Measures are formulated to implement the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Customs External Auditing (hereinafter referred to as the External Auditing Regulations).

Article 2

Customs carrying out external audits shall abide by the External Auditing Regulations and these Measures.

Article 3

"The audited" mentioned in these Measures refers to any enterprise or unit listed in Article 3 of the External Auditing Regulations. Their import and export activities include:

(1)

import or export declarations;

(2)

payment of import or export duties and other taxes and fees;

(3)

submission for examination of the import or export license or document;

(4)

records of material related to import or export goods and their safekeeping;

(5)

import, use, storage, processing, sale, transport, display and re-export of bonded goods;

(6)

use and control of goods imported with duty reduction or duty exemption;

(7)

carriage and control of customs transit goods;

(8)

use and control of goods temporarily imported or exported; and

(9)

other import or export activities.

Article 4

Customs shall carry out audits of account books, account vouchers, customs declaration forms and other relevant material and related import or export goods of the audited within the following time limit:

(1)

for goods imported with duty reduction or duty exemption, within the period of customs supervision and control;

(2)

for bonded goods, within the period of supervision and control as prescribed by customs, or within three years from the date of the release for re-export, or within three years from the date of the release for import as general trade transferred with approval; or

(3)

for import or export goods other than those listed in subparagraphs (1) and (2) of this Article, within three years from the date of the completion of customs formalities.

Chapter II Archival Control of Accounting Books, Forms and Other Relevant Material

Article 5

The audited shall establish and compile account books, account vouchers, account statements and other account data and establish and prefect the financial management system in accordance with the provisions of the Accounting Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the Accounting Law) and other relevant laws and regulations, in order to record and represent import and export operations authentically, accurately and completely.

Article 6

The audited shall keep account books, account vouchers, account statements and other account data within the time limit for safekeeping stipulated by the Accounting Law and other relevant laws and regulations. The audited who has put into practice computerized accounting as stipulated by the State finance department shall have account records stored in computer printed out in Chinese, and keep them together with the manual of the software, disks and other media in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph.

Article 7

The audited shall retain import or export declaration forms, the contract and other material directly related to import or export operations within the time limit of customs external auditing stipulated in Article 4 of these Measures.

Article 8

The audited shall provide, as required by customs, written material concerning the purchase, sale, processing, use, loss and inventory of import or export goods, as well as the statement of assets and liabilities, the statement of profits and losses and other account statements.

Chapter III Implementation of Customs External Auditing

Article 9

Three days prior to the implementation of external auditing, customs shall notify the audited by delivering a Notice of Customs External Auditing .

Article 10

Where any of the following circumstances exists, with the approval of the customs commissioner, customs may directly go to the audited to carry out an audit without any notice in advance.

(1)

where the audited is suspected of seriously violating the law;

(2)

where account books, account vouchers, account statements, computerized account data, customs declaration forms and other relevant material (hereinafter referred to as account books, forms and other relevant material) or import or export goods of the audited may be transferred or destroyed without authorization; or

(3)

where customs deems it necessary in special cases. When carrying out a direct audit, customs shall serve the Notice of Customs External Auditing on the audited face to face.

Article 11

When customs carries out an external audit, an auditing team shall be formed in which there shall be two auditors at least. In carrying out external auditing, customs officers shall present to the audited the Customs Auditing Credentials of the People's Republic of China.

Article 12

In carrying out an external audit, a customs officer who comes under any of the circumstances shall recuse himself:

(1)

where the customs officer is closely related to the legal representative or the person in charge of the audited;

(2)

where the customs officer or any of his close relatives has a direct interest in the audited; or

(3)

where the customs officer or any of his close relatives has other interests in the audited which may affect the normal process of customs external auditing. The audited who has justified reasons may apply for recusal of a customs officer. However, the customs officer concerned will not stop performing his audit tasks before customs makes a decision of recusal.

Article 13

When customs carries out an external audit, the audited shall cooperate with customs in the audit work, its legal representative or the person in charge or a representative it appoints shall be present, truthfully give information, and provide necessary working conditions. Any enterprise or unit associated with the audited in financial or other business transactions shall cooperate with customs officers in performing their duties, by keeping them informed of truthful information about the audited and providing necessary material and supporting papers.

Article 14

When customs officers scrutinize or reproduce account books, forms and other relevant material of the audited, the audited shall present them as required by customs and assist in making an inventory. In case of computerized accounting management, the audited shall also provide customs with the account software together with the instructions and other related material.

Article 15

Where the audited has not the conditions on the spot for scrutiny and reproduction work, customs may have the scrutiny and reproduction work done in another place with the consent of the audited. Where customs needs to have the scrutiny and reproduction work done in another place, a List of Account Books and Forms for Scrutiny shall be completed, and the two parties shall sign and stamp the List of Account Books and Forms for Scrutiny upon a careful check.

Article 16

After customs officers have reproduced account books, forms or other relevant material of the audited, the audited shall sign and stamp the account books or forms reproduced.

Article 17

When customs officers inspect manufacturing and business premises of the audited or the storage areas for import or export goods, the legal representative or the person in charge of the audited or a representative it appoints shall be present for showing the places, moving the goods, unpacking and re-packing the goods as required by customs. The inspection results shall be written down by customs officers in the Inspection Records , and the two parties shall sign (stamp) the Inspection Records.

Article 18

When inquiring of the legal representative or the person in charge of the audited or other persons concerned, the customs officer shall make a Record of Inquiries , which shall be signed (stamped) by the inquirer and the respondent.

Article 19

When inquiring about the deposit account of the audited at a commercial bank or any other financial institution, customs shall present a Notice to Assist in Inquiries . The Notice to Assist in Inquiries shall be subject to approval of the customs commissioner and bear the customs seal.

Article 20

In carrying out an external audit, if it finds the audited to possibly transfer, conceal, falsify or destroy its account books, forms or other relevant material, customs may temporarily seal up account books, forms or other relevant material of the audited with the approval of the customs commissioner. Customs sealing up account books, forms or other relevant material temporarily shall not hinder the audited in its normal manufacturing and business activities. In carrying out an external audit, if it finds import or export goods of the audited suspected of violating the provisions of the Customs Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the Customs Law) or other relevant laws and administrative regulations, customs may seal up import and export goods in question of the audited with the approval of the customs commissioner. When temporarily sealing up account books, forms or other relevant material of the audited or sealing up import or export goods of the audited, the customs officers shall present a Notice of Sealing up and attach thereto special customs seals. After checking the articles sealed up, customs officers and the audited shall sign (stamp) the inventory attached to the Notice of Sealing up.

Article 21

Account books, forms and other relevant material and the goods sealed up by customs in accordance with the provisions of Article 20 of these Measures shall be released without delay if suspicion of violations of law has been removed through external auditing, and a Notice of Release shall be issued to inform the audited.

Article 22

If the audited is found to have committed an act violating the Customs Law or other relevant laws or administrative regulations, customs carrying out external auditing may seize account books, forms and other relevant material and import or export goods of the audited.

Article 23

After the performance of auditing, the auditing team shall submit to customs an audit report. The opinions of the audited shall be solicited before the audit report is submitted to customs. The audited shall send its opinions in writing to customs within seven days from the date of receipt of the audit report. If it fails to do so within the time limit, it shall be deemed to have no opinions.

Article 24

Customs shall make a Customs External Auditing Conclusion and serve it on the audited within 30 days from the date of receipt of the audit report.

Chapter IV Treatment of Customs External Auditing

Article 25

Where duties or taxes are found to be short-levied or not levied through customs external auditing, the amount not collected shall be made up by the audited within one year from the date of payment of duties or taxes or release of the goods. Where the short-levied or unlevied collection is attributable to a violation of the provisions by the audited, customs may pursue the full payment by the audited within three years. When necessary, with the approval of the customs commissioner, it may notify the bank to deduct the payment from the deposit of the audited.

Article 26

Where the audited is found through customs external auditing to have committed any other act in violation of customs supervision regulations, customs shall deal with the case in accordance with the Customs Law and other relevant laws and administrative regulations.

Article 27

Before making a decision of administrative penalty upon the audited, customs shall inform the audited of the facts, grounds and basis for the administrative penalty to be made, and inform the audited of the rights it enjoys according to law. Any application for a hearing submitted in accordance with the provisions of the Interim Measures for Holding Hearings for Customs Administrative Penalties shall be accepted by customs as provided for.

Article 28

Where the audited fails to implement a customs decision on administrative penalty within a prescribed time limit, customs shall deal with the case in accordance with the provisions of Article 51 of the Law of the people's Republic of China on Administrative Penalty and Article 30 of the Rules for Implementation of Administrative Penalties under the Customs Law of the People's Republic of China.

Article 29

The audited who is found, through customs external auditing, to be suspected of the crime of smuggling or any other crime, shall be transferred to the relevant department for handling. Any act of smuggling which has not constituted the crime of smuggling, or any act which has constituted the crime of smuggling but is not prosecuted or exempted from criminal punishment shall be dealt with by customs in accordance with the Customs Law and other relevant laws and administrative regulations.

Chapter V Legal Responsibility

Article 30

Where the audited has committed any of the acts listed in Articles 29 and 30 of the External Auditing Regulations, customs shall issue the audited a Notice to Make Amends within a Time Limit . If no amends are made within the time limit, customs shall respectively impose a fine of not less than 10,000 yuan nor more than 30,000 yuan and a fine of not less than 10,000 yuan nor more than 50,000 yuan.

Article 31

Where the audited has committed any of the acts listed in Articles 29 and 30 of the External Auditing Regulations, if the circumstances are serious, customs shall disqualify it from making customs declarations, and impose a fine of not less than 1,000 yuan nor more than 5,000 yuan upon the person in charge directly responsible and other persons directly responsible. The person in charge directly responsible mentioned in this Article refers to the legal representative and the person in charge of the audited and persons in charge of its related departments; other persons directly responsible refer to financial personnel, warehouse managers and other related personnel of the audited directly involved in the import or export operations.

Article 32

Where a customs officer neglects his duties, commits illegalities for personal gain or by fraudulent means, abuses his powers or takes advantage of his office to accept or extort money or property from the audited in carrying out external audits, if a crime has been constituted, criminal responsibility shall be investigated according to law; if no crime has been constituted, customs shall deal with the case in accordance with the Customs Law, the Interim Regulations on State Civil Servants and other relevant laws and administrative regulations.

Chapter VI Supplementary Provisions

Article 33

Legal instruments in fixed form used as stipulated by these Measures shall be made uniformly by the General Administration of Customs.

Article 34

The General Administration of Customs shall be responsible for the interpretation of these Measures.

Article 35

These Measures shall come into force on March 1, 2000.