Recently, five authorities, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology ("MIIT"), have issued the Implementing Rules for the Administrative Measures for Import Duty Policies on Major Technical Equipment (the "Rules"), with effect from August 1, 2020.
The Rules are divided into five chapters, namely, general provisions, application procedures for duty-exemption qualification, review procedures for duty-exemption qualification, formulation and revision of catalogue, and miscellaneous provisions. According to the Rules, an enterprise applying for the entitlement to import duty policies on major technical equipment shall generally be a manufacturer of major technical equipment or products advocated by the state, and shall undertake that it has strong capacities in design, research and development, and manufacturing as well as a technical team formed by relatively comprehensive professionals. Meanwhile, such enterprise shall meet four conditions including "acting as an independent legal person". A nuclear power project owner which applies for enjoying the import duty policies on major technical equipment shall be the owner of a major technical equipment-based project in the nuclear power field. The Rules also point out that the work on entitling enterprises and nuclear power project owners which apply for enjoying the aforesaid policies for the first time to duty exemption will be organized and conducted once a year. Enterprises and nuclear power project owners that have enjoyed such policies will be collectively reviewed every three years to check their qualifications for duty exemption.