(Approved by the State Council on December 9, 1990, and promul-gated jointly by the People's Bank of China, the State Administration ofForeign Exchange Control, the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations andTrade, the General Customs Administration, and the Bank of ChinaonDecember 18, 1990)

(Approved by the State Council on December 9, 1990, and promul-gated jointly by the People's Bank of China, the State Administration ofForeign Exchange Control, the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations andTrade, the General Customs Administration, and the Bank of ChinaonDecember 18, 1990) This English document is coming from the "LAWS AND REGULATIONS OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA GOVERNING FOREIGN-RELATED MATTERS" (1991.7) which is compiled by the Brueau of Legislative Affairs of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, and is published by the China Legal System Publishing House.

In case of discrepancy, the original version in Chinese shall prevail.

Whole Document MEASURES FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE COLLECTION VERIFICATION AND WRITING-OFF OF EXPORT PROCEEDS IN FOREIGN EXCHANGE (Approved by the State Council on December 9, 1990, and promul- gated jointly by the People's Bank of China, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange Control, the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade, the General Customs Administration, and the Bank of China on December 18, 1990) Article 1 These Measures are formulated in order to strengthen the administration of the collecting of export proceeds in foreign exchange in accordance with the provisions in Interim Regulations on Foreign Exchange Control of the People's Republic of China and with the requirements of the State Council concerning the strengthening and perfecting of the system of the collecting, verifying and writing-off of export proceeds in foreign exchange.

Article 2 Definitions (1) "Departments for foreign exchange control" refers to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange Control and its branch offices; (2) "Trustee banks" refers to those banks (including foreign-capital financial institutions set up within the territory of China, and Chinese- foreign equity joint financial institutions) or non-banking financial institutions which are approved by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange Control to have the right to accept the entrustment of export units for tendering documents to and claiming reimbursements from foreign firms abroad.

(3) "Paying banks" refers to those banks (including foreign-capital financial institutions established within the territory of China, and Chinese-foreign equity joint financial institutions), or those non-banking financial institutions which are approved by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange Control to have the right to accept the entrustment of export units for tendering documents to and claiming reimbursements from foreign firms abroad, and which can deliver payments for goods to exporters in either RMB yuan or foreign exchange; (4) "Exporters" refers to those companies which have been approved by the Ministry of foreign Economic Relations and Trade or by its authorized units to have the right to handle export business, and also to those enterprises as well as enterprises with foreign investment which have the right to handle foreign trade.

(5) "Instrument for the collecting, verifying and writing-off of export proceeds in foreign exchange" (also referred to as "verifying and writing- off instrument" for short) refers to vouchers with serial numbers, printed and issued by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange Control, filled in by exporters, trustee banks and paying banks, accepted by the Customs as documents for clearance of goods, and used by departments for foreign exchange control for verifying and writing-off export proceeds in foreign exchange; and the said instrument has counterfoil attached to it; (6) "The deadline for the collecting" refers to the deadlines, as stipulated in Article 9 of these Measures, for the settlement or the collection of export proceeds in foreign exchange; (7) "The overdue uncollected foreign exchange" refers to the non-settled or uncollected export proceeds in foreign exchange, after the deadline for the collection.

Article 3 These Measures shall apply to all cases concerning the collection of foreign exchange under the heading of export trade done in all forms.

Article 4 Exporters shall apply to the local department for foreign exchange control for the verifying and writing-off instrument, which is affixed with a stamp - with the inscription "COLLECTING OF FOREIGN EXCHANGE UNDER SUPERVISION" - by the department for foreign exchange control. When applying to the Customs for clearance of goods, an exporter must present to the Customs the relevant verifying and writing-off instrument, and go through the procedures for declaration at the Customs with a declaration form marked with the serial number of the relevant verifying and writing- off instrument; otherwise, the Customs shall not accept the application for Customs clearance. After the completion of the procedures for Customs clearance of goods, the Customs shall affix the stamp - with the inscription "CLEARED" - to the verifying and writing-off instrument and to the declaration form marked with the serial number of the said verifying and writting-off instrument.

Article 5 In case that goods cannot be exported for one reason or another after the exporter concerned has filled in the verifying and writing-off instrument, the said exporter shall go through the procedures for the cancellation of the verifying and writing-off instrument at the department for foreign exchange control.

Article 6 After going through the procedures for Customs declaration of goods, the exporter concerned must, in good time, submit the relevant declaration forms, the duplicates of drafts for remittance, invoices and the counterfoils of verifying and writing-off instruments to the local department for foreign exchange control for the verifying and writing-off of export proceeds.

Article 7 When an exporter tenders documents to a trustee bank, the trustee bank must, on the strength of the verifying and writing-off instrument affixed with the "CLEARED" stamp, accept the relevant export documents. The trustee bank shall not be permitted to accept those export documents, to which no verifying and writing-off instrument is attached. An exporter, which handles export business either on its own or per procurationem, must use its own verifying and writing-off instrument when applying to the Customs for clearance of goods. A unit undertaking declaration at the Customs per procurationem must return, in good time, the verifying and writing-off instrument and the relevant Customs declaration forms to the consignor as soon as it has gone through the Customs declaration procedures for the exporter.

Article 8 An exporter, after using up the verifying and writing-off instruments it has, may apply to the local department of foreign exchange control for obtaining new verifying and writing-off instruments.

Article 9 All the export proceeds in foreign exchange of an exporter must be collected or settled, before the following deadlines for collection: (1) With respect to payments for goods through spot letter of credit or through spot collection, it is stipulated that export proceeds in foreign exchange must be settled or collected, within 20 days for region of Hong Kong and Macao and other offshore areas, and 30 days for the areas beyond the oceans, beginning from the day the relevant export documents are mailed.

(2) With respect to payments for goods through forward letter of credit or through forward collection, it is stipulated that export proceeds in foreign exchange must be settled or collected, within 30 days for region of Hong Kong and Macao and other offshore areas, and 40 days for the areas beyond the oceans, beginning from the day specified in the drafts of remittance for payment.

(3) With respect to payments for goods through consignment sales, the exporter must indicate the deadline for the collection on the counterfoil of the verifying and writing-off instrument, and the deadline shall not exceed the time limit of 360 days beginning from the day when the procedures for Customs declaration are completed.

(4) With respect to payments for goods through the sending of documents by the exporter itself - an operation not included in the scope of consignment sales (This refers to the procedures of tendering documents and collecting foreign exchange without the assistance of a bank), the exporter must settle or collect export proceeds in foreign exchange within 50 working days beginning from the day when the procedures for Customs declaration are completed.

Article 10 An exporter, no matter what forms of export proceeds collection it may adopt, must, within 30 working days immediately after the deadline for the collection, go through the procedures at the local department of foreign exchange control for the collecting, verifying and writing-off of export proceeds in foreign exchange, on the strength of the verifying and writing-off instrument signed by the paying bank, the foreign exchange settlement voucher or the collection advice, as well as other relevant certifying documents.

Article 11 In case that export proceeds have not been collected within the prescribed time limit, the exporter must promptly submit a written report to the department of foreign exchange control, giving an account of the case, and it is up to the department for foreign exchange control to handle the case at its discretion.

Article 12 The trustee bank and the paying bank shall strengthen their supervision over the overdue export proceeds of exporter, and shall also, in good time, press foreign banks for payment. The trustee bank and the paying bank must, within the first ten days of each quarter, submit a report to the local department for foreign exchange control concerning the uncollected overdue export proceeds.

Article 13 With respect to those who have violated the provisions of these Measures, the department for foreign exchange control has the power to impose on the violators such penalties as an administrative warning, circulation of a notice of criticism, a fine, or a temporary suspension of the use of a foreign exchange account. In case that the violators concerned refuse to comply with the aforesaid penalty decision, the case may be handled in accordance with Implementing Rules on Punishment of Violation of Foreign Exchange Control adopted by the State Council on March 25, 1985 and promulgated by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange Control on April 5, 1985.

Article 14 The Measures for the supervision and control of the collection of export proceeds in foreign exchange formulated by the various localities and departments prior to the promulgation of these Measures shall cease to be effective.

Article 15 The right to interpret these Measures resides in the State Administration of Foreign Exchange Control; and the relevant rules for implementation shall be formulated by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange Control in conjunction with other departments concerned.

Article 16 These Measures shall go into effect as of January 1, 1991.