The Ministry of Finance ("MOF") has recently issued the Circular on Effectively Working on the Second Phase of the Pilot Reform in the Administration of Electronic Financial Bills (the "Circular").
The Circular states that some units under the administration of the Central Government, such as the Northeast Normal University, in Hebei, Shanxi and other provinces (autonomous regions), will be subject to the pilot reform in the administration of electronic financial bills as of the date this Circular is issued. Further, the Circular requires that pilot areas and units shall, pursuant to requirements indicated in the policy (Cai Zong [2017] No.32), make clear the basic concept of electronic financial bills, unify and standardize the management procedures, coding rules and data criteria for electronic financial bills, develop the regime to guarantee the security of electronic financial bills, form the mechanism to share and deploy data information of electronic financial bills, and establish the system to supervise and check electronic financial bills, in order to enable electronic financial bills to be circulated smoothly, transmitted safely, used legally, and consulted conveniently and further achieve the dual objective of boosting efficiency and bringing convenience to the general public. Furthermore, the Circular sets forth the need to work effectively on getting the pilot reform aligned with both the administrative policies for non-tax revenues and the administration of the collection of non-tax revenues, and coordinated with the units' business management.