category | Tax to pay | change | |
Food, Infant & mon products | before | Personal postal tax: 10%, tax-free if the tax calculated less than 50 RMB. |
|
After | Value-added tax: 17%*70%=11.9% | Pay more tax 11.9% | |
Commodities traded through CBEC platforms in China have been enjoying largely reduced regulatory and tax policies compared to those imported through traditional model. From the regulatory perspective, there are still no national standardized regulations for CBEC products. CBEC platforms act as green channels which bring a great number of commodities not proven compliant with Chinese regulations/national standards. In term of tax, at current, CBEC goods are not subject to general tax system including like added-value tax and consumption tax. Consumers only need to pay a certain personal postal article tax for products they purchase through CBEC websites when the value of the tax exceeds 50 RMB. However, for most purchases, consumers can evade the personal postal article tax by just splitting the order into several packages.
Last Oct China AQSIQ released a draft regulation which clearly indicates CBEC products will be subject to the same regulatory requirement as traditional imported ones (see CL Food News on 16 Oct 2015). Although it has not been implemented yet, it means that CBEC products will soon fall under the AQSIQs regulatory radar, in addition to CBEC products no longer being able to enjoy the tax-free policy.
The Chinese government intends to impose almost the same regulations and policies on domestic and imported products both offline and online to ensure product safety and market competitiveness.
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