China Slightly Adjusts 2013 Catalogue of Imported Printing and Packaging Machinery Ineligible for Tax Exemption

[ppzhan abstract] The Ministry of Finance, the National Development and Reform Commission, the General Administration of Customs, and the State Administration of Taxation recently jointly issued the Catalogue of Imported Goods Not Entitled to Duty Exemption for Domestic Investment Projects (2012 Adjustment) (hereinafter referred to as the Catalogue). The adjusted new Catalogue took effect on January 1 this year.

The Catalogue is the primary basis for implementing the tariff exemption policy for related imported equipment. The adjusted Catalogue contains a total of 944 entries, of which 454 entries were involved in this adjustment, accounting for approximately 48% of the total. Among these, 130 entries were newly added, 11 were deleted or merged, 87 had their tariff codes adjusted, 62 had their equipment names adjusted, and 227 had their technical specifications adjusted.

The four ministries and commissions revised the Catalogue on the basis of extensively soliciting opinions from various regions, departments, industries, and enterprises, and in light of changes in the technological development level and production capacity of relevant domestic industries in recent years. The revision mainly followed the following principles: first, continue to support enterprises in introducing advanced technology and equipment that cannot be produced domestically, so as to drive industrial upgrading and technological progress; second, provide enterprises with a fair and reasonable external environment for purchasing domestically made equipment under equal conditions, and promote the sound development of the equipment manufacturing industry; third, effectively accommodate the needs of upstream and downstream industries as well as the equipment manufacturing and user sectors.

The newly added entries mainly comprise two parts: first, some major technical equipment for which taxation had previously been restored under relevant special policies, including large railway maintenance machinery and natural gas pipeline transportation equipment; second, equipment for which domestic manufacturing capacity has already been established in recent years and whose technical performance already meets domestic needs, as well as equipment for which considerable manufacturing capacity will be formed domestically within a short period, including special airport ground equipment, packaging machinery, marine equipment, and solar cell production equipment.

The equipment for which the technical specifications for import duty exemption were raised this time mainly consists of equipment in which domestic technological levels have made breakthrough progress in recent years, covering industries such as CNC machine tools, stamping equipment, electronic instruments, printing machinery, environmental protection machinery, food processing equipment, metallurgical machinery, and power generation equipment. At the same time, the technical specification thresholds were lowered for some equipment that domestic production cannot meet requirements for, including special nuclear power equipment, passenger vehicle molds, and pharmaceutical production equipment. This adjustment also involved changes to the names and tariff codes of some equipment entries, mainly to adapt to the need for tariff schedule revisions and to facilitate operation and use by administrative departments, customs declaration enterprises, and taxpayers.

The issuance of the new Catalogue is one of the concrete measures for implementing the spirit of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and this year's Central Economic Work Conference. Its issuance will further strengthen coordination among tax policies, trade policies, and industrial policies, promote the supporting role of imports in economic restructuring, and support the enhancement of enterprises' capacity for independent innovation, the development of strategic emerging industries, and industrial transformation and upgrading.

— This article is reposted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-361986.html