MEASURES FOR THE IMPOSITION OF SURCHARGES FOR PURCHASES OF MOTORVEHICLES

MEASURES FOR THE IMPOSITION OF SURCHARGES FOR PURCHASES OF MOTORVEHICLES Important Notice: 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 IMPOSITION OF SURCHARGES FOR PURCHASES OF MOTOR VEHICLES (Promulgated by the State Council on April 2, 1985) Article 1 Highways are infrastructure to serve the whole society. To speed up the construction of highways so as to meet the increasing demands for highways owing to the socioeconomic development and the rising living standards of the people, these Measures are formulated based on the decision to impose surcharges for purchases of motor vehicles as a special source of funds for the construction of highways.

Article 2 Surcharges for purchases of motor vehicles are imposed nationwide and each vehicle purchased shall be surcharged only once.

Article 3 A surcharge must be paid for all purchased motor vehicles to be assembled and used by the purchasers themselves (not including manpowered vehicles, animal-drawn vehicles or bicycles) upon purchase or actual use.

Article 4 The purchasers or users (including State organs and armed forces) of the vehicles are obliged to the surcharge (hereinafter referred to as payers).

Article 5 Surcharges shall apply to purchases of the following motor vehicles: (1) Domestically manufactured or assembled vehicles for domestic sale and use (including those manufactured and assembled by various forms of joint ventures and foreign-capital enterprises). These include buses, mini- buses, general-purpose freight vehicles, cross-country vehicles, passenger vans, two-wheel and three-wheel motorcycles, tractor trucks. semi-tractor trucks, other transport vehicles (including delivery vans, container, trucks, tipper lorries, tankers, lorries for transporting powdered or particulate cargoes in bulk, cold storage and heat preservation vans, cattle vans, mail vehicles, etc.) as well as trailers, semi-trailers and trailers for special usage.

(2) All imported (new ones and the second-hand) vehicles as listed in the preceding paragraph.

Article 6 The following vehicles shall be exempt from surcharges: (1) Vehicles with fixed installations for purposes other than transportation.

(2) Vehicles used by foreign embassies and consulates, representative offices of the UN organizations and international financial organizations in China.

(3) Other vehicles exempt from surcharges as approved by the Ministry of Communications and Ministry of Finance.

Article 7 The collection of the surcharge for purchases of motor vehicles shall be administered by the communications departments and the surcharges shall be collected on their behalf by the units listed in these Measures.

Article 8 The surcharge for the vehicles manufactured and assembled domestically shall be collected by the producers or assemblers; the rate of the surcharge shall be calculated on the basis of the actual sale price. The surcharge for vehicles assembled and used by the purchaser shall be paid at the local communications departments and the rate be calculated on the basis of the local market price of similar vehicles. The rate of the surcharge for domestically manufactured and assembled vehicles is 10 per cent.

Article 9 The surcharge for imported vehicles shall be collected by the Customs. The rate shall be 15 per cent based upon a combined price (i.e. C.I.F. + duties + the value added tax.) Article 10 The payers, upon surcharge payment, shall be issued "surcharge-paid" certificates. The form of certificates shall be devised by the Ministry of Communications.

Article 11 Only with "surcharge-paid" certificates can the payers apply for vehicle licence plates to the communications superintendencies or vehicle control departments of the public security organs, which shall, in cases of evasion of payment, order the evaders to pay the surcharges at the local communications departments, with an additional service charge.

Article 12 Purchasers of the vehicles that are exempt from the surcharge shall apply to the local communications departments for exemption certificates before registration with the local communications superintendencies or public security organs for vehicle license plates.

Article 13 The incomes from the collection of surcharges for purchases of motor vehicles shall be deposited with the China Industrial and Commercial Bank in a special account of the Ministry of Communications and shall be transferred to the account by the Bank's local branches.

Article 14 The surcharges for purchases of motor vehicles shall be exempt from the State Fund for Energy and Transportation development.

Article 15 The entire income of surcharges for purchases of motor vehicles shall be a source of funds for the country's highway development. The funds shall be used under the unified arrangement of the Ministry of Communications according to relevant regulations of the State.

Article 16 The collection and transfer of the surcharges are administered and supervised in a unified way by communications departments at various levels. The collecting units for surcharges for purchases of motor vehicles shall establish special account books and deposit the money collected in the special accounts of the Ministry of Communications for surcharge for purchase of motor vehicles at the local industrial and commercial branch banks. They shall also fill out relevant forms and statements and submit them to the communications departments in charge of collecting the surcharges. The collecting units are entitled to draw 0.3 per cent of the amount collected as service charge.

Article 17 The communications departments in charge of the surcharges have the right to supervise the collecting units with respect to the conditions of the collection and transfer. Immediate rectification shall be required for any failure to act upon these Measures; and fines shall be imposed on surcharge omissions or delayed transfers.

Article 18 Payers who fail to pay surcharges according to these Measures shall make up the payment and, in addition, be imposed according to the circumstances, a fine up to five times or less the amount due. Forgery of certificates shall be punished according to law.

Article 19 In cases where disputes occur between the payers and the collecting departments, the payers shall pay first as demanded and then apply to higher communications departments or finance departments for reconsideration.

Article 20 Individuals and units that expose or report on cases of surcharge evasion or certificate forgery shall be awarded.

Article 21 The Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of Finance shall be responsible for the interpretation of these Measures and the formulation of the rules for the implementation thereof.

Article 22 These Measures shall go into effect on May 1, 1985.