Temporary Punishment Measures on Behaviour of Writing Export Invoice at a Lower Price

Article 1  
For the purposes of regulating foreign trade order, safeguarding foreign trade interests of the state, these measures are worked out in accordance with Foreign Trade Law of the People's Republic of China, Administrative Punishment Law and other corresponding laws and regulations.

Article 2  
Export invoice may be divided into export invoice made by supervision and made by oneself. Export invoice made by supervision means the export invoice uniformly printed, supervised and managed by every local taxation department. The export invoice made by oneself means the export invoice printed by foreign trade managers themselves.

Article 3
“Writing export invoice at a lower price in terms of these measures means while foreign trade managers are engaged in foreign trade business, price written on the export invoice made by themselves provided to the importers is lower than the price on the invoice provided during export declaration at the customs.

Article 4
Ministry of Commerce will make investigation together with State Administration of Taxation and the General Administration of the Customs will give cooperation under following circumstances,
1.informant about domestic enterprises or organizations of corresponding industry being suspected of writing export invoice at a lower price;
2. circular on the behavior suspected of writing export invoice at a lower price put forward formerly by corresponding government department of an import country;
3. behaviour of foreign trade managers being suspected of writing export invoice at a lower price found through the cooperation with the customs;
4. Informants about other behaviours of writing export invoice at a lower price.

Article 5
Ministry of Commerce should make preliminary examination on the request for investigation within 10 days at receipt of the request for investigation. According to the examination, to the behaviour harmful to foreign trade order and interests of the state, Ministry of Commerce will transfer the materials to the General Administration of the Customs. The General Administration of the Customs will check whether the export invoice is written at a lower price and transfer the result to Ministry of Commerce within 50 days at receipt of the materials transferred by the Ministry of Commerce.

To the behaviour that is preliminary confirmed to be suspected of writing export invoice at a lower price, Ministry of Commerce will transfer the materials to State Administration of Taxation within 10 days at receipt of the check result made by General Administration of the Customs. State Administration of Taxation should make investigation that whether the foreign trade managers are suspected of writing export invoice at a lower price and transfer the investigation result to the Ministry of Commerce within 50 days at receipt of the materials transferred by the Ministry of Commerce. It is not restricted by this to the behaviour that is suspected of evading taxes by cheating and need to be send to the investigation organs for starting an investigation. To the behaviour that is confirmed preliminarily not being suspected of writing export invoice at a lower price, Ministry of Commerce will stop investigation on it.

　　　According to above investigation, if Ministry of Commerce confirmed that the export invoice was written at a lower price, it should make a preliminary decision on the behaviour of writing export invoice at a lower price in accordance with laws within 15 days at receipt of the investigation result made by the State Administration of Taxation and deliver the written document about the decision to the corresponding foreign trade manager within 10 days. To the behaviour that is confirmed not being suspected of writing export invoice at a lower price, Ministry of Commerce should stop investigation on it.

Article 6
Within 7 days at delivery of the preliminary decision to the corresponding foreign trade manager, corresponding foreign trade manager may submit written application materials to the Ministry of Commerce and make an application for a hearing for any disagreement.

Article 7
Ministry of Commerce should give a hearing on the punishment on corresponding foreign trade manager's behaviour of writing export invoice at a lower price in accordance with the provisions of Administrative Punishment Law.

Article 8
Within 50 days at the date of preliminary decision, Ministry of Commerce will make final decision on the foreign trade manager's behaviour of being suspected of writing export invoice at a lower price.

Article 9
To the foreign trade manager who wrote export invoice at a lower price for the first time, Ministry of Commerce will give him a warning in accordance with related provisions of Administrative Punishment Law. To the enterprises that did it again 2 year after the first warning, a fine of less than 30,000 yuan may be imposed besides being given a warning. If above behaviour of violating the law exerted a bad influence to foreign trade order, the enterprise violating the law should be prohibited to be engaged in foreign trade business for more than 1 year and less than 3 years in light of the circumstances. The enterprise's legal representative holding major responsibility should be prohibited to be legal representative for foreign trade enterprise for more than 1 year and less than 3 years in light of the circumstances.

Above punishments will be announced in accordance with Foreign Trade Law and corresponding regulations. 

The administrative punishment decision letter should be delivered to corresponding foreign trade managers within 7 days at the date when the punishment decision is made.

Article 10
If there is any disagreement with the administrative punishment listed in Article 9, the person concerned may apply for an administrative review in accordance with laws or bring a lawsuit to the People's Court in accordance with laws.

Article 11
Relative unit and individual should cooperate with and assist in the investigation made by the Ministry of Commerce, General Administration of the Customs and State Administration of Taxation.

Ministry of Commerce, General Administration of the Customs and State Administration of Taxation should maintain secrecy about state and commercial secret known during the investigation.

The investigators of Ministry of Commerce, General Administration of the Customs and State Administration of Taxation should abide by corresponding laws, regulations and rules of the state during the investigation.

Article 12
During the investigation, if any foreign trade manager was found to be suspected of writing export invoice at a lower price, State Administration of Taxation will make an investigation on him and punish him in accordance with related provisions of Measures on Invoice Management of the People's Republic of China. Punishment should be given by the customs on any behaviour of smuggling and violating the regulations of customs supervision in accordance with the provisions of Customs Law of the People's Republic of China and Implementation Regulations for Administrative Punishment of the Customs of the People's Republic of China.

Article 13
The days for the investigation procedure in terms of these measures means working days.

Article 14
The interpretation of these measures are vested in Ministry of Commerce, General Administration of the Customs and State Administration of Taxation.

Article 15
These measures shall go into effect 3 months after the promulgation of these measures.