Recently, Beijing Customs approved an electronic letter of guarantee submitted by Cainiao, a cross-border e-commerce logistics company in China. This marked the official launch of electronic tax guarantees for retail imports in cross-border e-commerce under Beijing Customs' jurisdiction.

This April, the General Administration of Customs began reforming the digitalization of tax guarantees in the area of cross-border e-commerce retail imports. Fifteen customs offices nationwide, including Beijing Customs, began pilot projects for this initiative.

The new protocol has streamlined the guarantee process in which companies do not need to shuttle between banks and customs, thereby significantly improving the efficiency of customs clearance for cross-border e-commerce.

Zhang Lin, deputy director of Tianzhu Customs under Beijing Customs, said that the reform of tax guarantees for cross-border e-commerce has implemented fully online operations, encompassing filing, modification, freezing, unfreezing, and inquiries of guarantee letters. This transformation has greatly enhanced efficiency three-to-five times compared to previous methods.

Since the pilot program started two months ago, Beijing Customs has processed electronic guarantee filings for four consignments from three enterprises, totaling 13 million yuan ($1.79 million) in guarantee amount.

In recent years, Beijing Customs has actively launched pilot reforms in key areas such as electronic payments, product barcode application, and digitalization of guarantees, said Wang Maolin, deputy director of the Tariff Division at Beijing Customs. These efforts have attracted major cross-border e-commerce export platforms such as Alibaba, Xiyin, and Pinduoduo to establish operations in Beijing.