Standing Committee： increase policy support such as export tax rebate to promote the steady development of foreign trade.

On April 13th, Li Keqiang, Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China presided over the the State Council executive meeting and decided to further increase policy support such as export tax rebate to promote the steady development of foreign trade.

Export tax rebate is a policy that is inclusive, fair and in line with international rules. The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress proposed three specific measures.

First, the processing trade enterprises should refund the unrequited tax after implementing the consistent policy of collecting and refunding tax rates for export products, and allow the transferred input tax to offset the value-added tax. Export credit insurance claims are regarded as foreign exchange receipts and tax rebates are applied.

The second is to speed up the progress of tax refund, implement the whole process online, and reduce the processing time of tax refund from an average of 7 working days to 6 working days.

The third is to improve the efficiency of customs clearance for the return of export goods, formulate policies to facilitate cross-border e-commerce, give more convenience to trustworthy enterprises in customs clearance and tax refund, and severely punish fraudulent tax refund.

Zhong Huiyong, associate professor of the School of Finance of Shanghai University of International Business and Economics and deputy director of the Institute of Financial Development, told The Paper that the deduction of value-added tax can avoid the overlap of export tax rebate and value-added tax payment, and reduce the complexity of corporate tax payment. Treating export credit insurance claims as foreign exchange receipts and handling tax rebates can enable enterprises to enjoy the benefits of export tax rebate policy as soon as possible.

"Improve the flexibility of the export tax rebate policy, better reduce the burden on foreign trade enterprises, and enable foreign trade enterprises to tide over difficult times smoothly." Zhong Huiyong said that shortening the time of tax refund will enable foreign trade enterprises to get the dividends of national policies more quickly.

Zhong Huiyong also said that improving the customs clearance efficiency of export goods and the cross-border e-commerce exchange policy can reduce the worries of foreign trade enterprises and better encourage exports. At the same time, we should also avoid foreign trade enterprises and make use of favorable policies to defraud tax rebates. (Reporter Hou Jiacheng)