Chinese customs officials yesterday announced they had laid down the framework of a modern customs system and vowed to finish the work before 2010.
"We will try to build up a modern customs service that is in harmony with the xiaokang society and socialist market economy, complements a more open economic system and adapts to practices and rules of international customs," said Mou Xinsheng, director-general of the General Administration of Customs (GAC).
The so-called xiaokang society refers to a community that is well-off in the broadest sense, not only materially but also socially.
A modern customs service promises all-around improvements in its legal framework, customs clearance, controls on smuggling, and administrative efficiency and transparency.
Mou urged customs officials to raise more revenue from customs duties and import-related taxes, crack down on smuggling and improve supervision of goods and passengers in transit.
They should also make full use of customs statistics, support export growth and lay down a solid foundation for long-term goals this year.
The director-general spoke at the three-day national conference of customs directors, which opened in Beijing yesterday.
Besides improving the legal framework, the Chinese customs offices have taken measures to better handle cross-border goods and passengers, said Mou.
GAC statistics show Chinese customs cracked down on 55,755 smuggling cases involving a total of 43.04 billion yuan (US$5.20 billion) in the 1998-2002 period.
Since their establishment in 1999, customs' anti-smuggling police have taken measures against 14,955 suspects, 7,791 of whom were sent to prosecution departments.
Despite tariff cuts after China's entry to the World Trade Organization, Chinese customs' net revenue from duties and import-related taxes reached a record high of 259.06 billion yuan (US$31.29 billion) last year. It stands at 1,000.19 billion yuan (US$120.80 billion) for the past five years combined.
Chinese customs has supervised the passage of 3.9 billion tons of goods, 94.84 million vehicles, 976.25 million passengers and 565.22 million mail and express deliveries since 1998. Over the five-year period, the amount of goods, vehicles, passengers, mail and express deliveries grew annually by 37.7 percent, 8.7 percent, 10.4 percent and 11.2 percent respectively.
Of the 25 export processing zones that were approved by the State Council, 19 have been put into operation.
(China Daily January 8, 2003)
