Small Changes in Provisional Tariff Rates for Imported Printing Equipment in 2014

[ppzhan abstract] Import tariffs play an important role in the development of an industry. At the end of 2013, China's State Council Tariff Commission issued the "2014 Tariff Implementation Plan", which took effect on January 1, 2014. Among other things, the provisional tariff rates on imported printing equipment in 2014 showed no obvious change compared with 2013.

At the end of 2013, the State Council Tariff Commission issued the "2014 Tariff Implementation Plan", which took effect on January 1, 2014. Compared with 2013, what changes does the 2014 tariff implementation plan bring, especially in import and export tariff rates? For people in the printing world, what we care about is what preferential policies the state offers for the import and export of printing equipment. A careful reading of the printing equipment section of the "2014 Tariff Implementation Plan" (see the attached table) shows that the provisional tariff rates on imported printing equipment changed very little this year. The details are as follows.

First, compared with 2013, the most substantial change in the provisional tariff rates on imported printing equipment in 2014 is that the provisional tariff rate for computer-to-plate (CTP) equipment was raised from 3% in 2013 to 5%.

Second, the names listed as provisional tariff rates, the number of tariff codes (20), and the provisional rates are all the same as in 2013 (except for the computer-to-plate equipment mentioned above).

Third, in 4 places the commodity names have individual wording changes (the changed wording is marked in bold in the attached table), which do not affect the substantive meaning of the tariff headings (commodity names).

In addition, the author offers the following supplementary notes:

1. The provisional tariff rate is a measure for regulating imports and exports and, generally speaking, also a preferential policy to encourage imports and exports; it is set once a year and is valid for one year.
2. Import tariff rates include the general rate, the most-favored-nation rate, the agreement rate, the provisional rate and the preferential rate, among others. The principle for which rate applies is that whichever rate is lower is the one applied. Generally speaking, the provisional rate is the lower one.
3. The printing equipment and accessories listed under provisional tariff rates are what our printing industry needs, and the import tariff rates are not very high - for offset presses, for example, only 7%. Some people mistakenly believe that importing an offset press only requires paying 7% (the provisional rate), which is incorrect. In fact, the taxes payable on imported equipment are several times higher than the provisional rate. For example, if we want to buy an offset press worth USD 1 million and its provisional tariff rate is 7%, some people mistakenly believe that paying 100 x 1.07 = USD 1.07 million is enough; in reality, the enterprise buying the machine must pay 100 x 1.17 x 1.07 = USD 1.2519 million in a lump sum.

From this we can see that in buying an offset press worth USD 1 million, the tax levied is not only USD 70,000 but USD 251,900, equivalent to 1/4 of the machine price. Although the 17% value-added tax (called the import-link adjustment tax by customs) can be deducted, it is easy for large factories while the deduction takes much longer for small ones, and enterprises with poor economic performance still hesitate somewhat about this.

——This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-361824.html