Laws of the People's Republic of China

    Article 1  These Measures are formulated with a view to supporting
the work of recovery of the disabled, facilitating the import of the
special-purpose articles for the disabled.

    Article 2  Customs import duties and value-added taxes or consumption
taxes in import links shall be exempted from on the following import
special-purpose articles for the disabled:

    (1) The propping and auxiliary utensils, artificial limbs and relevant
parts, artificial eyes, artificial noses, supporting belts for internal
organs, orthopedic appliances, orthopedic shoes, non-motorized walking-aids,
means of transport instead of walk(not including cars, motors), self-help
living appliances, or special sanitary materials for the mutilated persons;

    (2) Walking-sticks for the persons disabled in eyes, guided glasses for
the blind, sight-aids, reading appliances for the blind;

    (3) Language training appliances for the lingually or aurally disabled;

    (4) Action training appliances and living ability training articles for
the intellectually disabled.

    When importing the special-purpose articles for the disabled as
prescribed in the proceeding paragraph, the duty payers shall go through
the formalities of exemption from Customs duties directly at the Customs
authorities.

    Article 3  The following special-purpose articles for the disabled which
are imported by relevant units and can not be made in China shall, upon the
approval of the Ministry of Civil Affairs or the Chinese Federation for the
disabled according to subordinate relations and after examination of
the General Customs Administration, be exempted from Customs import duties
and value-adding taxes or consumption taxes:

    (1) Recovery equipments and special-purpose equipments for the disabled,
including guarding equipments of beds or wards of hospitals, central guarding
equipments, biochemical analysing instruments and ultrasonic diagnosing
instruments;

    (2) Specific educational equipments and professional educational
equipments for the disabled;

    (3) Instruments of assessing and gauging of professional ability for the
disabled;

    (4) Special-purpose working instruments and working protection instruments
for the disabled;

    (5) Special-purpose instruments for the cultural and sports acts of the
disabled;

    (6) Special-purpose equipments for producing assembling and testing
artificial limbs,including special-purpose milling and polishing machines,
special-purpose vacuum forming machines, special-purpose flat hearing
machines and comprehensively testing instruments employed in artificial
limbs production;

    (7) Hearing aids used by persons disabled in ears.

    Article 4  The term "relevant units" stipulated in Article 3 of these
Measures denotes:

    (1) Enterprises and institutions directly under the Ministry of Civil
Affairs, and welfare institutions, artificial limbs factories and recovery
hospitals for disabled disaled soldiers(including various kinds of sanitariums
for disabled revolutionary soldiers, hospitals and recovery hospitals for
disabled disaled soldiers directly under provinces, autonomous regions and
municipalities directly under the Central Government;

    (2) Institutions directly under the Chinese Federation for the Disabled
(the Chinese Welfare Foundation for the Disabled), welfare institutes
and recovery institutes directly under the Federation for the Disabled(the
Welfare Foundation for the Disabled) of provinces, autonomous regions and
municipalities directly under the Central Government;

    Article 5  The import special-purpose articles for the disabled with
duties exemption according to These Measures shall not be used for other
purposes.

    Where anyone, in violation of the provisions of the proceeding paragraph,
use the import articles with duties exemption for other purposes, and such
an act constitutes a smuggling crime, he shall be investigated for criminal
responsibilities in accordance with law; Where such an act does not
constitutes a crime, the case shall be treated as a smuggling act or an act
violating Regulations on Customs control.

    Article 6  Provisions for implementation shall be formulated by the
General Customs Administration in accordance with These Measures.

    Article 7  These Measures shall come into effect as of the date of
promulgation.