BEIJING, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- China is expected to adjust cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) retail import policy starting from January 1, 2019, aiming to further encourage CBEC development while regulating CBEC operating entities, 21st Century Business Herald reported.
From January 1, 2019, retail goods imported through CBEC platforms will continue to be regulated as imports for personal use, according to a circular recently released by authoritative departments including the Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs.
The new policy will be implemented in additional 22 comprehensive CBEC pilot cities such as Beijing, Shenyang, Nanjing, Wuhan, Xi’an, Xiamen, on the basis of exsiting 15 cities.
The scope of commodities that could enjoy favorable tax (70 percent of statutory amount) will be expanded to another 63 categories of goods in high demand from 2019.
Under the new policy, domestic consumers could enjoy preferential tax on goods value up to 5,000 yuan in single transaction, compared to previous limit of 2,000 yuan, and the annual quota per person is also raised to 26, 000 yuan from previous 20, 000 yuan.
Meanwhile, the policy requested all CBEC operators to register with industry and commerce administrations and the customs.
By regulating as personal use products, the policy simplifies and streamlines administrative procedures for CBEC imports, stated Zeng Bibo, founder and CEO of China’s e-commerce marketplace of Ymatou.com.
Under the new policy, Chinese consumers will get more overseas high quality goods at more favorable price, noted a member of Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com.
Data from the customs showed that CBEC retail imports and exports totaled 111.04 billion yuan from January to October this year, up 86 percent year on year, with imports standing at 67.18 billion yuan, up 53.7 percent year on year, according to Wang Wei, director with port supervision department under the General Administration of Customs. (Edited by Su Dan, Niu Huizhe)
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