On February 23, 2012, the People’s Bank of China, Ministry of Finance, MOFCOM, State Administration of Taxation, General Administration of Customs and China Banking Regulatory Commission jointly issued the Notice on the Administration of Company Settling Export Trade in Renminbi (YinFa [2012] No. 23). According to this notice, company will be subject to “key supervision and administration” if in the last two years it (1) has committed tax evasion or export refund fraud, or issued or accepted fake VAT invoice; (2) has been subject to the investigations of tax bureau and public security bureau for tax evasion, export refund fraud, issuance or accepting fake VAT invoice; (3) has committed serious Customs violation e.g. smuggling; (4) has committed serious violations of financial regulations; (5) has committed serious violation of state foreign trade laws and regulations (6) has committed serious violation of other laws.

The name list of these companies under key supervision and administration will be submitted by the local government and local counterparts of these ministries and commissions to the ministries and commissions at the state level for review and confirmation and this name list is required to be updated annually by the local government. The information of these companies will be shared between these ministries and commissions as well as their local counterparts through the “Renminbi Cross Border Payment and Remittance Information Management System” established by the People’s Bank of China. The application documents of these companies for Renminbi payment for export trade will be subject to a more stringent review process and any Renminbi obtained by these companies for their export trade cannot be deposited in their oversea bank accounts.

Any questions regarding this article can be directed to Sharon Xu at sxu@sheppardmullin.com in Beijing.