If the automatic import license is used incorrectly for imported coal, both the customs declaration company and the customs declaration officer will be fined

If the automatic import license is used incorrectly for imported coal, both the customs declaration company and the customs declaration officer will be fined

Q: We are a customs declaration company, in order to provide customers with processing trade surplus materials carry-over declaration procedures, due to the negligence of the staff, the weight of the goods was wrong, was investigated by the customs, how will our company be punished?

Answer: Simply reporting the wrong weight may constitute a violation of customs supervision regulations that affects the accuracy of customs statistics. If your company engages in customs declaration business and the above violations occur due to negligence, you may be fined or other penalties in combination with the specific violations. According to Article 5 of the Measures of the Customs on the Administration of Leftover Materials, Surplus Materials and Parts, Defective Products, By-products and Bonded Goods Affected by Disasters in Processing Trade, processing trade enterprises shall declare that the surplus materials and parts will be carried forward to another processing trade contract for use, which is limited to the same business enterprise, the same processing enterprise, the same imported materials and parts and the same processing trade mode. Where conditions are met, after the customs verifies the unit consumption according to the regulations, the enterprise can go through the procedures for the verification of the contract and the carry-over of the remaining materials and parts. If the transfer of surplus materials and parts to the contract has been examined and approved by the competent department of commerce, the original examination and approval department shall go through the relevant formalities in accordance with the method of change, and if the transfer volume of the remaining materials and parts does not increase the total import volume of the approved contract, it shall be exempted from the change procedures; if the transfer contract is a new contract, the competent department of commerce shall handle it in accordance with the current regulations on the examination and approval of processing trade. According to Article 17 of the Regulations on the Implementation of Customs Administrative Penalties, if a customs declaration enterprise or customs declaration personnel fails to conduct a reasonable examination of the authenticity of the information provided by the client, or if the circumstances specified in Article 15 of these Regulations occur due to negligence, the customs declaration enterprise may be fined less than 10% of the value of the goods and suspended from engaging in customs declaration business or practice for a period of 6 months; Therefore, if your company fails to make a false declaration of the carry-over procedures for the transfer of incoming and remaining materials due to negligence, you may be fined.

Typical case: After the investigation of E Customs, the party has committed the following illegal acts: the party has acted as an agent for a number of import and export companies for a long time to handle import and export customs declaration business, including a coal limited company (hereinafter referred to as a coal company) and an industrial limited company (hereinafter referred to as an industrial company). At the same time, the party applied for an automatic import license for coal on behalf of an import and export company, and the automatic import license number of a coal company was XXXXN11846, and the automatic import license number of an industrial company was XXXXN10722. On March 3, 2023, Wu, a staff member of the party, specifically operated and acted as an agent for a coal company to declare the import of a bill of coal (customs declaration number: XXXXX0231073110481, contract number XXX-6323, weight of 1957.9 tons, declared unit price of 897.69 yuan/ton, and total price of 175758725 yuan). After investigation, the domestic consignee of the coal was a coal company, and the corresponding automatic import license should be No. XXXXN11846 (a coal company), and the party Wu mistakenly submitted the automatic import license for the use of No. XXXXN10722 (an industrial company) due to work negligence, which affected the national license management.

Legal Analysis and Compliance Guidelines: According to Paragraph 3 of Article 10 of the Customs Law, if the client entrusts a customs declaration enterprise to handle the customs declaration formalities, it shall provide the customs declaration enterprise with the true information of the entrusted customs declaration matters, and if the customs declaration enterprise accepts the entrustment of the client to handle the customs declaration formalities, it shall conduct a reasonable review of the authenticity of the information provided by the client. According to the first paragraph of Article 24 of the Law, the consignee of imported goods and the consignor of exported goods shall truthfully declare to the Customs and submit the import and export license and relevant documents for inspection. Goods restricted by the state for import and export shall not be released without an import or export license, and the specific measures for handling them shall be prescribed by the State Council. According to the provisions of Article 86 (3) of the Law, if the import and export goods or articles or transit, transit or transport goods are falsely declared to the customs, a fine may be imposed, and if there are illegal gains, the illegal gains shall be confiscated.

In this case, the party was a customs declaration company that had been acting as an agent for a number of import and export companies for a long time. The two customers of the parties are a coal company and an industrial company, and the parties apply for an automatic import license for coal on behalf of the import and export company, and the automatic import license number of a coal company is: XXXXN11846, and the automatic import license number of an industrial company is: XXXXN10722. On March 3, 2023, the staff member of the party Wu specifically operated on behalf of a coal company to declare the import of a bill of coal, and the domestic consignee of the coal was a coal company, and the corresponding automatic import license should be No. XXXXN11846 (a coal company), and the party Wu mistakenly submitted an automatic import license for the use of No. XXXXN10722 (an industrial company) due to negligence.

Based on the above, the use of the wrong automatic import license by a customs declaration company and Wu, a person directly responsible for the party, in the process of customs declaration on behalf of a customer, constitutes a violation of customs supervision regulations listed in Article 86 (3) of the Customs Law and Article 12 of the Regulations on the Implementation of Customs Administrative Penalties. In accordance with the provisions of Article 32 (5) of the Administrative Penalty Law, Article 86 (3) of the Customs Law, Article 17 of the Regulations on the Implementation of Customs Administrative Penalties, and Article 12 (1) of the Discretionary Criteria for Customs Administrative Penalties (1) (Announcement No. 182 [2023] of the General Administration of Customs), Customs E decided to impose a fine of RMB 18,000 on a customs declaration limited company. In accordance with the provisions of Article 32 of the Regulations on the Implementation of Customs Administrative Penalties, Customs E decided to give a warning to the party Wu.

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