(Promulgated by the State Administration of Exchange Control onNovember 10, 1989)
(Promulgated by the State Administration of Exchange Control onNovember 10, 1989)
Whole document
RULES FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF REGISTRATION OF EXTERNAL DEBTS
(Promulgated by the State Administration of Exchange Control on November
10, 1989)
Article 1
These Rules are formulated in order to implement the Interim
Provisions for the Statistical Work and Supervision of External Debts
(hereinafter referred to as the Provisions).
Article 2
External debts refer to any liabilities resulting from borrowing
abroad for which contractual repayments in foreign currencies are
required. They include:
(1) Loans from international monetary institutions, namely, loans
from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Asian
Development Bank, the International Agriculture Development Fund and other
international or regional monetary institutions;
(2) Loans from foreign governments, namely, loans provided by foreign
governments in the form of official development assistance to China;
(3) Loans from foreign banks and non-bank financial institutions,
namely, loans from banks, non-bank financial institutions and syndicates
which operate outside China;
(4) Buyer's credit, namely, loans provided by foreign banks offering
export credit for Chinese importing departments or banks to buy equipment
from exporting countries;
(5) Foreign enterprise loans, namely, loans provided by foreign
enterprises that are not financial institutions;
(6) Issuance of foreign currency bonds, which refer to bonds with
denomination values in foreign currencies issued by domestic institutions
on money markets outside China;
(7) International monetary leasing, namely, leases of a fund-raising
nature provided by foreign leasing institutions for domestic institutions;
(8) Delay payment, which refers to a preferential term offered by
foreign exporters to domestic importing departments for the importers to
pay for the goods with a delay of 3 months after the goods have arrived in
China;
(9) Liabilities arising in compensation trade to be repaid directly in
cash, namely, liabilities to be repaid in cash as is stipulated in
compensation trade contracts or liabilities for which repayment is altered
to be in cash instead of in kind (goods) due to certain reason and with
approval, including liabilities to be repaid with export earnings in
foreign exchange.
(10) External debts in other forms, including:
¢Ù Foreign currency deposits in domestic monetary institutions by
institutions or individuals abroad;
¢Ú Loans obtained by domestic enterprises (including foreign
investment enterprises) from foreign or Chinese-foreign joint-venture
banks which operate in China. Apart from all these, also regarded as
external debts are the following:
¢Ù Liabilities transferred into China in various forms by externally
registered institutions, which are to be repaid by domestic institutions;
¢Ú External liabilities of Chinese institutions based abroad without
external registration;
¢Û Foreign loans borrowed by a foreign investment enterprise in the
name of the foreign side of the enterprise to be used as input in funds or
equipment outside the capital investment, which are to be repaid by the
enterprise as is required by a contract signed between the foreign side
and the enterprise or any other legal documents;
¢Ü Liabilities of a foreign debtor for whom a Chinese side has
provided guarantee, and for which the repayment is to be actually made by
the Chinese side;
¢Ý Liabilities owned by a wholly foreign-owned enterprise to its
parent company.
Article 3
The State Administration of Exchange Control and its branch offices
are the departments in charge of the registration and administration of
external debts in the country (hereinafter referred to as the registering
departments). The State Administration of Exchange Control takes charge of
the registration of external debts incurred by the ministries and
commissions under the State Council, corporations, banks and head offices
of non-bank financial institutions, which are all based in Beijing, and
its branch offices in localities take charge of the registration of
external debts incurred by local governments, monetary institutions, as
well as units of central departments and head offices of monetary
institutions based in localities.
External debts incurred by a Chinese institution based abroad without
external registration shall be registered by the administration of
exchange control of the locality where the externally based Chinese
institution's parent institution is situated.
Article 4
The registration of external debts is divided into case-by-case
registration and regular registration.
Regular registration applies to external debts incurred by domestic
banks and non-bank financial institutions, and loans offered by foreign
governments and international monetary institutions which fall
respectively under the administration of the Ministry of Foreign Economic
Relations and Trade, the People's Bank of China, the Ministry of
Agriculture and the Bank of China.
Case-by-case registration applies to external debts incurred by
domestic departments other than those governed by regular registration,
and by enterprises (including foreign investment enterprises).
External debts incurred by monetary institutions as entrusted by
enterprises and other institutions are to be registered with the debtors
stipulated in the borrowing contracts handling the procedures for
registration.
Article 5
The procedures for regular registration are as follows:
(1) A debtor unit shall, within 15 days after the first contract on
borrowing is signed, go through registration procedures at the local
administration of exchange control, and receive an External Debts
Registration Certificate (herein-after referred to as the Registration
Certificate) for regular registration.
(2) When new contracts on borrowing are signed or alterations such as
drawing and repayment occur in the debt, a debtor unit shall fill in
monthly a form of the Signing of Contract on External Debts and a Form of
Feedback on the Alterations of External Debts (hereinafter referred to as
the Form of Feedback) registering department within 5 days after the end
of the month.
(3) When a debtor unit needs to open a foreign exchange cash account
with a bank, the unit shall, by submitting the Registration Certificate
and a document approving the opening of the account from the registering
department, go through the necessary procedures for opening a special
foreign exchange cash account relating to external debts (hereinafter
referred to as a special account for external debts) as an appointed bank
with which such an account is opened (hereinafter referred to as the
account opening bank), and send the receipt by mail the following day to
the registering department.
Article 6
The procedures for case-by-case registration are as follows:
(1) The debtor unit shall, within 15 days after a contract on
borrowing is signed, go through the procedures for the registration of
external debts by submitting a duplicate copy of the contract and the
document of approval for the borrowing (such a document of approval is not
necessary for foreign investment enterprises) at the registering
department, and receive a Registration Certificate for case-by-case
registration.
(2) When the borrowed funds are transferred into Chinese territories,
the debtor unit shall, with the remittance instruction and the
Registration Certificate, open a special account for external debts at the
account-opening bank, and go through the procedures for entering the item
into the account.
(3) When due repayment of principal and payment of interest are to be
made, the debtor unit shall, by submitting the Registration Certificate
and the instruction on repaying the principal and paying the interest, get
a document approving the repayment of principal and payment of interest
from the registering department in advance, and go through necessary
procedures at the account-opening bank for the repayment of principal and
payment of interest to be remitted out of the special account for external
debts by submitting the document of approval and the Registration
Certificate to the bank.
(4) After receipts and disbursements are handled and the procedures
for opening an account are implemented, the debtor unit shall fill in the
Form of Feedback in accordance with the instruments of receipts and
disbursements issued by the account-opening bank, and file the following
day the Form of Feedback and a duplicate copy of the certificate of
deposit with the registering department.
(5) A unit incurring a debt in the form of not being transferred into
China, from which no cash in foreign exchange is moved in but for which
repayment of principal and payment of interest are to be remitted out of
China, shall, after the debt has occurred, fill in a Form of Feedback,
and send by mail the following day a duplicate copy of the Form of
Feedback to registering department. When due repayment of principle and
payment of interest are to be made, the debtor unit shall, with the
documents of endorsement by the registration department, go the opening
bank to open a Special Foreign Currency Account for Repayment of Principal
and Payment of Interest Relating to External Debts (herein-after referred
to as special account for the repayment of principal and payment of
interest) with the account-opening bank, and go through necessary
procedures for the remitting of the repayment of principal and payment of
interest.
(6) A unit which deposits the borrowed money outside of Chinese
territories with approval from the State Administration of Exchange
Control or its branch offices shall, through the Form of Feedback, report
to the original registering department on the alterations of the deposit
in each month.
(7) No other accounts are required to be opened when domestic
institutions borrow money from foreign or Chinese-foreign joint venture
banks operating in China, but the domestic institutions shall go through
the procedures for registration and submit the monthly Form of Feedback as
is required by relevant regulations.
(8) When it is necessary for a debtor unit which has received a
Registration Certificate in its own locality to go through the procedures
for opening an account and making repayment of principal and payment of
interest at a bank in another locality, the debtor unit shall, by
submitting the Registration Certificate issued by the registering
department in its own locality, go through the procedures for approving
the repayment of principal and payment of interest as the registering
department in the other locality shall, 3 days after the procedures are
handled, file the duplicate copies of disbursements with the original
registering department.
Article 7
After the last repayment of principal and payment of interest are made
for the debt recorded in the Registration Certificate, the account-opening
bank shall immediately cancel the Special Account for the Repayment of
Principal and Payment of Interest related to the Registration Certificate.
The debtor unit shall return the Registration Certificate within 15 days
to the registering department for cancellation.
Article 8
An account-opening bank shall meet the following requirements:
(1) It must be a domestic bank which has been approved to deal in
foreign exchange;
(2) It can cooperate closely with the registering department in the
supervision over external debts.
The State Administration of Exchange Control and its branch offices
shall appoint account-opening banks in line with the requirements of
business.
Article 9
An account-opening bank shall fulfil the following obligations:
(1) Supervising the use of the accounts. The bank shall ensure that
funds in foreign exchange remitted into the Special Account for External
Debts and the Special Account for the Repayment of Principal and Payment
of Interest are only the funds recorded in the Registration Certificate,
and that funds in foreign exchange deposited in the accounts or
transferred from other accounts can only be used to pay for the equipment
and labour service of the project related to the debt, for the repayment
of principal and payment of interest, or for other usage which has been
approved by the registering department;
(2) Handling the transferring in and repaying of the debts in line
with the Registration Certificate and the document of approval, and filing
the instruments of receipts and disbursements with the registering
department the following day after the procedures are handled;
(3) Supervising external debts under case-by-case registration to
ensure that the transferring in of the loans and the repayment of
principal and payment of interest all go through the Special Account for
External Debts and Special Account for the Repayment of Principal and
Payment of Interest.
Article 10
In the event of any one of the following acts of violating these
Rules, the local administration of exchange control may impose a fine in
RMB on the party concerned, with the amount equivalent to not more than 3
percent of the external debt involved:
(1) Intentionally not to go through or to put off the handling of
procedures for the registration of external debts;
(2) Refusing to submit, or making false registration in, or at least
twice delaying the submission of the Form of Feedback to the
administration of exchange control;
(3) Foreign or altering the Registration Certificate;
(4) The fine shall be imposed on both the debtor and the account for
External Debts or a Special Account for the Repayment of Principal and
Payment of Interest is opened or retained without permission, or when the
repayment of principal and payment of interest are not made out of the
Special Account for the Repayment of Principal and Payment of Interest.
Article 11
The right to interpret these Rules resides in the State Administration
of Exchange Control.
Article 12
These Rules shall go into effect on the day of their promulgation.
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