GuoShuiHan [1998] No.720 December 3, 1998

State taxation bureaus of various provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and municipalities separately listed on the State plan:

Recently, some issues occurring during the execution of the policy of export taxation refund has be reported by relevant regions, after investigation, the following should be clarified:

I. The formula (exempted or offset tax = offshore price of export goods * quote price of foreign exchange to RMB * refund rate - refund fulfilled) listed in Article 1 of the Circular on Budget Management Concerning Tax Exemption, Offsetting and Refund(CaiYuZi [1998] No.242) promulgated by the Ministry of Finance, the State Administration of Taxation and the People's Bank of China and in Article 4 of the Circular of the Ministry of Finance and the State Taxation Administration on Tax Exemption, Offsetting and Refund for Export Goods of Productive Enterprises Entitled to Foreign Business(CaiShuiZi [1997] No.50), only applies to export goods manufactured with domestic materials or parts. As to the export goods of imported materials or parts, according to Supplementary Circular of the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation on Some Issues Concerning the Taxation of Export Goods (CaiShuiZi [1997] No.14) and the document CaiShuiZi [1997] No.50, the price of imported materials or parts approved by the Customs should be detracted from the offshore price while computing tax exemption or offsetting. The formula should be: tax exemption or offsetting = (offshore price of export goods * quote price of foreign exchange to RMB - taxable price of imported materials or parts approved by the Customs) * refund rate - refund fulfilled.

II. The tax rate and refund rate mentioned in Paragraph 2 of Article 2 of the document coded CaiShuiZi [1997] No. 14 of the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation refer to the tax rate and refund rate for export goods.

III. From now on, the tax rate for export coal shall be 40% of 13%, and specialized certificate of payment should be offered; accordingly, the Circular of the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation on the Restoration of Specialized Certificate of Value-added Tax Payment for Export Goods(CaiShuiZi [1996] No.8), where it is provided that 3% specialized invoice of tax be offered, shall be suspended from execution. Specialized certificate of added-value tax may be offered for mechanic and electric products sold to refund-allowable enterprises winning a bidding by manufacturers, whether the bid winner is entitled to export business or not.

Promulgated by The State Administration of Taxation on 1998-12-3