January 2022 / China

Cargo and container throughput at China's ports registered stable growth in 2021, data from the Ministry of Transport shows.

Last year, cargo throughput at China's ports totaled 15.55 billion tonnes, up 6.8 percent year on year, according to the ministry.

The country's container throughput at ports during the period climbed 7 percent from a year earlier to 282.72 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), the ministry said.

In December 2021, China's ports handled nearly 1.34 billion tonnes of cargo, while container throughput stood at 23.07 million TEUs, according to the ministry.

China has adopted multiple measures to cope with the container shortage amid the COVID-19 pandemic, such as shipping empty containers back to domestic ports, accelerating the production of containers and promoting digital transformation of ports for smooth flow of cargo.

The country's total goods imports and exports expanded 21.4 percent year on year to 39.1 trillion yuan (6.14 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2021.

Source: XINHUANET

Chinese authorities on Friday unveiled a master plan on boosting the green transformation of consumption in key areas, the latest move for the country to achieve its carbon peak and neutrality goals.

The plan, jointly released by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and six other government organs, said that green consumption modes will prevail by 2025, calling for efforts to arouse people's awareness of green consumption, curb extravagance and waste, and enhance the market share of green and low-carbon products.

"China's green consumption is yet to be stimulated," NDRC official Chang Tiewei told a press conference. He noted the importance of green consumption in spurring the low-carbon transition on the supply side, improving the attractiveness of China as a super-large market, and shoring up high-quality development.

The plan detailed measures in various major fields, ranging from food, clothing and housing to transport, tourism and electricity.

To encourage green housing, the plan urged efforts to incorporate measures of energy saving and environmental protection while renovating old urban residential communities and rural houses.

On green transport, efforts will be made to vigorously promote the use of new-energy vehicles (NEVs), such as enhancing supporting facilities like battery charging and swapping stations, and increasing the application of NEVs in public service vehicles.

Official data shows that China's NEV sales came in at 3.52 million units last year, ranking first globally for a seventh straight year. NEV ownership in China rose to 7.84 million units in 2021, accounting for about half of the world's total.

As for shifting to green electricity consumption, the plan underlined that newly-added renewable energy and energy used as raw materials would be excluded from the cap on total energy consumption. The proportion of green electricity in residential power consumption will be raised.

As an active participant in addressing climate change, China has announced its ambition of peaking CO2 emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.

2021 is viewed as a critical year for China's decarbonization efforts. The country released a top-level design document for peaking carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality and an action plan for peaking carbon emissions by 2030, both of which outlined specific measures on boosting green consumption.

  Source: XINHUANET

China's top economic planner has released a notice aimed at boosting consumption as the Spring Festival holiday approaches while maintaining precise COVID-19 control.

The notice has been issued to cater to residents' growing consumption demand and unleash the potential of the domestic market, as part of efforts to propel the economy to achieve a stable start in the first quarter, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.

Multiple measures should be taken to meet residents' festive needs, including ensuring the supply of daily necessities, providing more contactless services and helping senior citizens enjoy convenient transportation to reunite with their families, said the notice.

It also set out policies to upgrade online festival consumption and expand consumption in rural areas.

Consumption related to the ice-snow industry, as well as culture and entertainment, should be encouraged, the notice said, adding that the vitality of the smart retail sector should be further supported.

In 2022, China will utilize its microeconomic policies to stimulate the vitality of market entities and deepen the supply-side structural reform with a focus on smoothing the circulation of the national economy, said the tone-setting Central Economic Work Conference in December 2021.

Source: XINHUANET

China has taken more measures to boost the country's innovation drive and is shifting from focusing on the intellectual property (IP) quantity to quality, the country's top IP regulator said Wednesday at a press conference.

One of the efforts is that China has canceled subsidies for patent applications at all levels to eliminate the improper behavior of patent applications that can not protect innovation, said Zhang Zhicheng, a senior official of the National Intellectual Property Administration.

To improve efficiency, the administration has used computer-aided screening and manual labor to investigate cases suspected of abnormal patent applications, reporting 815,000 abnormal patent applications last year, Zhang said.

Hu Wenhui, a spokesperson for the administration, also highlighted China's progress in the IP protection of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Hu added that China had announced to protect 63 Olympic symbols submitted by the Beijing Organising Committee for the upcoming Winter Games, including emblem, name, abbreviation, mascot, and slogan.

Hu also summarized China's protection efforts on the patents and trademarks of Olympics emblems and torches, realizing comprehensive Olympics-related IP protection.

Source: XINHUANET

The Ministry of Finance and the State Taxation Administration released on December 31, 2021 the Announcement on the Collection of Individual Income Tax on Income from Equity Investments, to be effective from January 1, 2022.

It is specified that the audit collection method would be uniformly applied for the calculation and collection of individual income tax (IIT) on wholly Individually-owned enterprises and partnerships that hold equity investments such as equity interest, shares, and property shares of partnership, and the said enterprises and partnerships should voluntarily inform the tax authorities about their holding of equity investments within 30 days from the holding date, or inform the tax authorities about their holding of equity investments before January 30, 2022 if they have held the investments before the implementation of the Announcement.

The Ministry of Finance and the State Taxation Administration released on December 31, 2021 two documents on the extension of some personal income tax policies.

1. IIT preferential calculation for annual bonus

The preferential method for calculating IIT of annual bonus is extended its validity by STA until 31st December 2023. Generally, the method applies preferential IIT rate to annual bonus separately. Such amount shall be apportioned over 12 months for tax computation purpose, with no deduction, and subject to the Monthly Tax Rate Table for computation of tax payable amount. However, only tax resident individual shall enjoy and apply this tax computation method once within a calendar year.

2. Expats’ subsidies and allowances

Originally, from 2022 expats shall cease to enjoy IIT exemption policies for subsidies and allowances such as housing allowance, language class fees, children education fees. Delightfully STA announced to extend the validity of IIT exemption policy for expats’ subsidy and allowance to 2023/12/31. The relevant subsidies and allowances are:

(1) The housing allowance, food allowance, relocation allowance and laundry charge received by individual aliens in the non-cash form or in the form of full expense reimbursement;

(2) The travel allowance received by individual aliens according to reasonable standards;

(3) The family reunion fee, the language training fee and the children's educational fee received by individual aliens that have been approved by the local tax authorities to be reasonable.

From January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2025, the following cross-border taxable activities of domestic units and individuals will be exempted from VAT: (1) product liability insurance with export goods as the subject matter of insurance; (2) product quality assurance insurance with export goods as the subject matter of insurance.   The collection and administration of VAT for the above-mentioned cross-border taxable activities of domestic units and individuals shall be implemented in accordance with the current regulations on the administration of VAT exemption for cross-border taxable activities. Matters that have occurred before and have not been dealt with shall be implemented in accordance with the provisions of this Announcement; The relevant taxes already paid shall not be refunded.

The State Taxation Administration recently released the revised Administrative Measures for the Exposure of Entities Violating Major Tax Laws or Acting in Bad Faith, to be implemented from February 1, 2022.

It is the third time that the STA revises the Measures since it was released for the first time in 2014. There are 12 revisions, which raise the standards for the determination of some dishonest entities, including raising the amount of evaded tax in arrears to 1 million yuan from 10,000 yuan, and increasing the amount of falsely issued ordinary VAT invoices to more than 4 million yuan. The Measures included four types of violating entities into the scope of dishonest entities, such as those withholding agents who do not pay or underpay the taxes that have been deducted and collected and the amount has exceeded 1 million yuan. It is clarified that only the information of the legal person, responsible person and actual person in charge of the violating entities would be exposed.