NOTIFICATION ON HOW TO USE THE 'VERIFICATION SYSTEM FOR IMPORT AND EXPORT CUSTOMS DECLARATION FORM NETWORK'

(Valid From:1999.01.20)

In order to address the problems met by branches of State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) and designated foreign exchange banks (DFEBs) for using the 'Verification System for Import and Export Customs Declaration Form Network' (hereinafter 'System'), after the consultation with General Bureau of Customs, we notify some issues as follows.I. Branches of SAFE and DFEBs should follow the 'Circular on Experimentation and Extension of the 'System'' (hereinafter 'Circular'), which is jointly promulgated by General Bureau of Customs, People's Bank of China and SAFE, to use the 'System' to do trade authenticity verification timely and report the problems to us immediately.II. The customs declaration form (hereinafter 'form') passes authenticity verification if it works through following steps. That is, the 'System' displays the existence of the form after inputting 'code of business enterprise' and 'preparatory number of customs declaration form' into it. Furthermore, it could also get through the information, which is compatible with page-made 'form', such as name of import port, name of business enterprise (including number of business enterprise registered at the customs), name of recipient enterprise, mode of trade, mode of delivery, code of commodity, name of commodity, unit price and quantity (it could be treated as compatible if the differentials for unit price and quantity between electronic and page-made forms are resulted from rounding of last decimal).III. The enterprise is eligible for purchase and payment of foreign exchange for import purpose only when the 'form' gets through the 'System'. DFEBs and SAFE should base on the amount shown in commercial documents, such as bill of lading, contract and invoice, to do trade authenticity verification or examination of import payment. But the accumulative amount should be no more than the equivalent amount of foreign exchange with the multiplication of unit price and quantity shown in the page-made 'form'.IV. After processing purchase and payment of foreign exchange or examination of import payment which is qualified by the 'System', DFEBs and SAFE should either print out the electronic 'form' and staple it with relevant documents for keeping, or saving the page shown in the 'System' as the name of 'preparatory number of customs declaration form' in the computer which could be displayed same as original copy. The two methods of saving should be retained carefully as main documents. All the aforementioned things should be done within one week. As a temporary measure, it is also possible for two persons to sign the 'form' or report form for delivery simultaneously before the deadline. Meanwhile, after doing purchase and payment of foreign exchange or examination of import payment, DFEBs and SAFE should base on the requirement of the 'Circular' to ratify and write off relevant amount at the electronic 'form' according to real deal. When the total amount for eligible purchase and payment of foreign exchange or examination of import payment is reached, the electronic 'form' should be canceled by using the function of 'close of examination' in the 'System'.V. According to 'Circular on standardizing second verification of customs declaration form for import and export', in the following cases, DFEBs and SAFE should also process purchase and payment of foreign exchange or examination of import payment only after doing second verification:i) the form which is dated importing before September 1 of 1998;ii) the form with the name of business enterprise different from name of enterprise processing external payment;iii) the enterprise which has not got the IC temporally;In the case of (ii), DFEBs and SAFE should check and retain agent contract.VI. In case the form fails in passing the 'System', then either DFEBs and SAFE do the second verification, or the import enterprise go to customs for making up the input of electronic information about the 'form'.VII. This notification is effective from January 20 of 1999.Once receiving this notification, branches of SAFE should transfer it to sub-branches and foreign-funded banks within their jurisdiction, and domestic Chinese-funded banks should transfer it to their sub-branches immediately as well.