NingboLife and NingboExpat since 2004 - Import/export inspection fee exemption benefits local exporters

Import/export inspection fee exemption benefits local exporters

Details: Category: Ningbo News; Published: Tuesday, 18 September 2012 10:21

The State Council, or China's Cabinet, has recently approved a raft of measures to stabilize growth in foreign trade, which is good news for the tens of thousands of foreign trade companies in Ningbo. According to the Ningbo Bureau of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, the exemption of import/export inspection fees will hopefully save over 100 million yuan for local exporters in the fourth quarter this year.

Zhang Qionghua, Financial Director of Ningbo Bureau of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, said the package of measures might have an immediate effect in Ningbo. According to the newly issued policy, China exempts the entry-exit inspection and quarantine fees in Q4 of 2012 and will further reduce the inspection and quarantine fee since 2013. "Based on the statistics in the same period last year, local exporters are expected to save over 100 million yuan in Q4 this year," she said.

Speeding up payment of tax rebates to exporters will boost foreign trade in Ningbo. The city has started the export tax rebate program since the beginning of this year. It also started a pilot service, which allows the exporters of low-risk goods on a regular basis to apply direct tax rebate. With the new service, they can get their refunding within 20 working days. Meanwhile, the use of online reporting platform facilitates the collection of relevant data and thus shortens the tax rebate process. By end of this July, the tax rebates to exporters had amounted to 31.017 billion yuan, or a daily average of 150 million yuan, benefiting more than 10,000 local exporters.

In response to the new policy of the State Council, Ningbo is encouraging local companies to explore emerging markets. Currently, local exporters have made notable progress in optimizing the export layout. Customs statistics show that in the first seven months of this year, Ningbo exported $2.343 billion to ASEAN, an increase of 14.9 percent over the same period last year. Meanwhile, Ningbo saw rapid export growth in the BRIC countries, which includes a $1.035 billion export to Russia, a year-on-year increase of 8.4 percent, and a $913 million to Brazil, a year-on-year increase of 14.3 percent.

On September 12, the State Council unveiled a slew of measures to stabilize growth in foreign trade. The eight policies call for speeding up the export tax rebate progress, reducing cost of exporters, protecting the interests of Chinese exporters by properly addressing trade frictions, easing funding difficulties, simplifying administrative procedures, and optimizing foreign trade structure. Currently, concerning departments of Ningbo are stepping up the implementation of the above eight policies.