Laws of the People's Republic of China

State Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Finance

Circular of the State Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance on Printing and Distributing the Measures for Charging Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Fees

FaGaiJiaGe [2003] No. 2357

The planning commissions (development and reform commissions), price bureaus, finance departments (bureaus) of all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, and the State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine:

With a view to strengthening the administration on charging entry-exit inspection and quarantine fees, guaranteeing the lawful rights and interests of the entry-exit inspection and quarantine institutions and the fee payers, we have, according to the actual circumstance of the present work of import and export commodity inspection, of frontier health quarantine, and of entry-exit animal and plant quarantine, formulated the uniform measures for charging inspection and quarantine fees, which are printed and hereby distributed to you. Please comply with and carry them out.

State Development and Reform Commission

Ministry of Finance

December 31st, 2003

Measures for Charging Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Fees

Article 1

The present Measures are formulated in accordance with the Law of the People's Republic of China on Import and Export Commodity Inspection and the Regulation for the Implementation Thereof, the Law of the People's Republic of China on Entry-Exit Animal and Plant Quarantine and the Regulation for the Implementation Thereof, the Law of the People's Republic of China on Frontier Health and Quarantine and the Detailed Rules for the Implementation Thereof, the Food Hygiene Law of the People's Republic of China, and other relevant laws and regulations, with a view to strengthening the administration on charging entry-exit inspection and quarantine fees, guaranteeing the lawful rights and interests of the entry-exit inspection and quarantine institutions (hereinafter referred to as the inspection and quarantine institutions) and the fee payers.

Article 2

The present Measures shall be applied to the inspection and quarantine institutions at all levels and their subordinate public institutions, as well as the consignors related to entry and exit, their agents and other related entities and individuals (hereinafter referred to as entry/exit-related persons).

Article 3

The inspection and quarantine institutions shall lawfully carry out inspections, quarantine, survey and other similar inspection and quarantine business on persons, goods, means of transportation and containers of entry or exit, and other statutory objects to be inspected and quarantined (hereinafter uniformly referred to as statutory objects to be inspected and quarantined), and charge fees according to the present Measures and the charging rates for entry-exit inspection and quarantine as prescribed in the present Measures (hereinafter referred to as the present Measures and the charging rates thereof).

Article 4

The entry-exit inspection and quarantine fees shall be calculated by Yuan in Renminbi, with the amount below 1 Yuan being rounded off.

Where any fee calculated according to the present Measures and the charging rates thereof is less than the minimum amount, it shall be charged in accordance with the minimum amount.

Article 5

Where a charging rate is based on the value of goods, the fees shall be charged on the basis of the total value of goods specified in the letter of credit, invoices and contract on the trade of goods of entry or exit, or on the basis of the price valuated by the customs.

Article 6

An inspection and quarantine institution shall regard "a batch" as a unit for calculation of the goods of entry or exit. "A batch" means the goods of the same commodity name, coming from or having been carried to the same place, or the same consignee or consignor at the same time with the same means of transportation. The goods carried by more than one carriage of a train, if the aforementioned conditions are met, shall be considered as a batch. The goods of more than one variety and commodity name, which are consolidated into a single container, if the aforementioned conditions are met, shall also be considered as a batch.

Article 7

Where the same batch of goods involve more than one item of inspection and quarantine business, the fees shall be separately calculated and accumulatively charged in light of the actual work of the inspection and quarantine business, with the inspection and quarantine as an item, the quantity and weight as an item, the survey of packing as an item, the laboratory inspection as an item, the property survey as an item, the safety monitoring as an item, and the quarantine treatment as an item.

The goods inspection and quarantine fees shall be divided into the fees for quality inspection, for clinic animal quarantine, for on-the-spot plant quarantine, for animal and plant product quarantine, for food and food processing equipment sanitary inspection and for quarantine, be separately calculated and accumulatively charged.

Article 8

Where an inspection and quarantine institution draws samples from the goods of entry or exit under statutory inspection and quarantine according to the relevant operational rules on inspection and quarantine or clauses on inspection and quarantine to represent the whole batch for inspection, the fees shall be charged as a whole batch.

Article 9

The goods quality inspection fees shall be calculated by different means of quality inspection. If the goods are inspected by the inspection and quarantine institution, the quality inspection fee shall be charged at the full amount. If, however, the goods are inspected by the inspection and quarantine institution jointly with other relevant entities (including arrangement for the inspection), the quality inspection fee shall be charged at 50% of the chargeable amount.

The survey fee for the weight of goods shall be calculated by different means of survey. If the weight is inspected by the inspection and quarantine institution, the weight survey fee shall be charged at the full amount. If, however, the inspection and quarantine institution only supervises the weight survey (including the weight survey by the inspection and quarantine institution without the weight survey equipment), the weight survey fee shall be charged at 50% of the chargeable amount.

Article 10

The quality inspection fee for the goods of exit that are processed from imported materials shall be calculated and charged at 70% of the charging rate.

Where no quality inspection is to be carried out on the goods of entry that are processed from supplied materials, no quality inspection fee shall be charged. The quality inspection fee for the goods of exit that are processed from supplied materials shall be calculated and charged at 70% of the charging rate.

Article 11

Where an inspection and quarantine institution carries out a type test on exported goods according to the relevant provisions, it shall charge the type test fee according to the present Measures and the charging rates thereof. The quality inspection fee for the exported goods whose type test has been completed shall be calculated and charged at 70% of the charging rate.

Article 12

For the quality inspection, weight survey and packing use survey of the dangerous articles, poisonous and harmful goods, and the survey of the shipment conditions of the means of transportation that carries the aforementioned goods, the fees shall be doubled according to those under the present Measures and the charging rates thereof.

Article 13

Where the unit price of a kind of valuable and rare metal of entry or exit exceeds 20,000 Yuan per kilogram, the excessive part shall be exempted from quality inspection fee.

Article 14

Where the inspection and quarantine fees for the same batch of goods exceed 5,000 Yuan, the excessive part shall be charged at 80%.

Article 15

Where the total value of each batch of goods of entry or exit is less than 2,000 Yuan, such goods shall be exempted from quality inspection fee, and only the cost of certificate (document) production shall be charged. If any other inspection and quarantine operation is involved, the corresponding fees shall be charged according to the provisions.

Article 16

Under any of the following circumstances, the inspection and quarantine institution may charge additional laboratory inspection fee and survey fee:

(1)

It is prescribed in the present Measures and the standards for the charging rates thereof that the laboratory inspection fee and the survey fee shall be charged additionally;

(2)

It is required by a foreign government or a bilateral (multi-lateral) agreement or by the entry/exit-related person that items of inspection or survey other than those specified in the operational rules on inspection and quarantine shall be added;

(3)

It is prescribed in laws or regulations or rules of the State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine that items of inspection or survey other than those specified in the operational rules on inspection and quarantine shall be added, and it's explicitly required that fees be charged additionally.

Article 17

Where an object of entry or exit under statutory inspection and quarantine that has been inspected and quarantined is under any of the following circumstances, the inspection and quarantine institution shall, after a new application for inspection and quarantine has been filed and such an object has been re-inspected and re-quarantined, charge the related fees additionally according to the present Measures and the charging rates thereof:

(1)

The importing or destination country (region) has modified the inspection and quarantine requirements;

(2)

The packing of goods or the consolidated goods are changed;

(3)

The validity period for inspection and quarantine or the time limit in the certificate (list) for export has expired;

(4)

It is found during port inspection that the goods do not conform to the documents or the batch numbers are in disorder, and they need to be cleaned up once again.

Article 18

With respect to the exported goods that have been inspected and quarantined by the inspection and quarantine institution and have been defined as unqualified, and for which a notice of disqualification has been issued, the inspection and quarantine fees shall be charged at full amount. However, if, upon consent of the inspection and quarantine institution, the entry/exit-related person has processed and cleaned up the unqualified goods once again, and the inspection and quarantine institution again inspects and quarantines such goods, the fees shall be charged at half of the amount.

Article 19

Where an inspection and quarantine institution entrusts an inspection institution or any other testing entity, whose eligibility has been recognized by the State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, to inspect a statutory object to be inspected and quarantined, the inspection fees shall be paid by the inspection and quarantine institution. After that the inspection and quarantine institution may charge fees from the entry/exit-related person according to the present Measures and the charging rates thereof.

Article 20

Where it is prescribed in laws or administrative regulations that certain goods of entry or exit are to be inspected by the relevant inspection entity, and the inspection and quarantine institution issues a certificate upon strength of the inspection result, the inspection and quarantine institution may only charge the cost of production of the issued certificate (list), and shall not charge the inspection fees or any other fees.

Article 21

Where a port inspection and quarantine institution inspects the replacement of a certificate upon the strength of the certificate-replacement list issued by the inspection and quarantine institution at the place of origin, it may only charge the cost of production of the issued certificate (list), and shall not charge the inspection fees or any other fees.

Article 22

For the transit of plants or animal or plant products, the inspection and quarantine institution at the port of entry only needs to quarantine the means of transportation and the packing, and charge the fees for inspection and quarantine of the means of transportation or the packing according to the provisions. If it is required by relevant laws or administrative regulations that a plant or an animal or plant product is to be quarantined by means of sampling, the fees shall be chargedaccording to the present Measures and the charging rates thereof.

For the transit of animals, the quarantine fees shall be charged in light of the actual inspection and quarantine requirements, and the charging rates for animal quarantine.

Article 23

Where an inspection and quarantine institution carries out a sanitary supervision inspection on imported foods, food additives, food containers, packing materials, food instruments or equipment, or the detergent, disinfectant, etc. for foods or food instruments or equipment (including the aforementioned goods that are processed from supplied materials, exported under buy-back agreement or sold in duty-free shops), it shall charge the fees for sanitary inspection of the foods or food processing equipment according to the present Measures and the charging rates thereof.

Where a single variety of food is imported at a quantity of not more than 100 tons or non-singular variety of foods at a quantity of not more than 500 tons, the fees shall be calculated and charged at the charging rates for small batches of foods.

Article 24

For the inspection and quarantine of small amounts of frontier trade with the value of each batch not more than 100,000 Yuan, the fees shall be calculated and charged at 70% of the charging rates prescribed in the present Measures. For the inspection and quarantine of small amounts of frontier trade fees with the value of each batch not more than 50,000 Yuan, the fees shall be calculated and charged at 50% of the charging rates prescribed in the present Measures.

Article 25

When an entry/exit-related person cancels an inspection or quarantine due to certain reasons, and the inspection and quarantine institution has not begun the inspection or quarantine, no fees shall be charged. If the inspection and quarantine institution has carried out the inspection or quarantine, the fees shall be calculated and charged at 100% of the charging rates. If the inspection or quarantine is cancelled because of the liability of the inspection and quarantine institution, no fees shall be charged.

Article 26

An entry/exit-related person shall, according to the relevant laws, regulations, the present Measures and the charging rates thereof, pay the inspection and quarantine fees at full amount in good time. Within 20 days as of the issuance of a charging notice by the inspection and quarantine institution, the entry/exit-related person shall pay off all the fees. If he fails to pay off the fees within the time limit, an overdue payment fine at a rate of 5 thousandth of the unpaid amount per day shall be imposed since the 21st day.

Article 27

The inspection and quarantine institution shall charge fees strictly according to the present Measures and the charging rates thereof, apply for the charging permit in the designated competent department of price, and issue the receipts in use as prescribed by the Ministry of Finance.

Article 28

Each inspection and quarantine institution shall publicize the charging items and charging rates, accept the inspection and supervision by competent departments of price and that of finance, may not discretionally increase or reduce the charging items, or discretionally raise or lower the charging rates, or charging fees repeatedly.

Article 29

The present Measures shall be implemented on April 1st, 2004. Any relevant previous provisions on charging entry-exit inspection and quarantine fees, which are inconsistent with the present Measures, shall all be abolished.

Annex 1: "Charging Rates for Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine" (Omitted)

Annex 2: "Charging Rates for the Relevant Laboratory Test Items and Survey Items on Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine" (Omitted)

Annex 3: "Charging Rates for Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine, Quarantine Treatment, etc." (Omitted)