The Decision of the State Council on the Revision of the Measures for the Collection of Statistics and Declaration of the Balance of Payments is hereby promulgated and shall be implemented as of January 1, 2014.

Premier Li Keqiang

November 9, 2013

Decision of the State Council on the Revision of the Measures for the Collection of Statistics and Declaration of the Balance of Payments

The State Council has decided to revise the Measures for the Collection of Statistics and Declaration of the Balance of Payments (the Measures) as follows:

I.        Article 2 is revised as “All economic transactions between Chinese residents and non-Chinese residents and external financial assets and liabilities of Chinese residents shall be subject to the statistics and the declaration of the balance of payments.”

II.     Article 7 is revised as “Chinese residents and non-Chinese residents carrying out economic transactions within the territory of China shall declare the information on the balance of payments in compliance with the relevant regulations in a timely, accurate, and complete manner.”

III. Articles 9 and 10 are combined into Article 9: “Institutions within the territory of China that provide services such as registration, settlement, and trusteeship, and dealers engaging in external transactions of securities, futures, and options on a self-run basis or on behalf of their clients shall declare to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange or its branches/sub-branches information about the external transactions, receipts, payments, and dividend payouts.”

IV. Article 11 is revised as Article 10 which reads “Financial institutions within the territory of China shall declare their self-run external business directly to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange or its branches/sub-branches (including their external financial assets, liabilities, and their variations, profits and receipts and payments of interest, receipts and payments of external financial services, and other receipts and payments), and shall fulfill the obligations in their role as an intermediary through which Chinese and non-Chinese residents declare their statistics and the balance of payments to the relevant authorities.”

V.     Article 13 is revised as Article 12, which reads “Foreign-funded enterprises within the territory of China, enterprises with direct investments outside the territory of China, and other non-financial institutions with external financial assets and liabilities must declare directly to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange or its branches/sub-branches information regarding their external financial assets, liabilities, and their variations, and profits and receipts and payments of dividends and interest.”

VI.  An article is added as Article 13 which reads “Individual Chinese residents who have external financial assets and liabilities shall declare the relevant information about their external financial assets and liabilities in accordance with the relevant regulations of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.”

VII.            Article 15 is revised as “The State Administration of Foreign Exchange or its branches/sub-branches has the right to check and verify the information declared by Chinese and non-Chinese residents; those making the declarations and the relevant institutions or individuals shall provide the relevant materials and shall make arrangements for the inspections and verifications.

VIII.        A paragraph is added to Article 16 as paragraph 2 which reads “Banks, dealers, and institutions that provide services such as registration, settlement, and trusteeship shall keep strictly confidential the specific declared data about which they have knowledge during the handling of the relevant business.”

IX.  Article 17 and 18 are combined into Article 17, which reads “Chinese and non-Chinese residents who fail to provide the statistics and declaration of the balance of payments in accordance with the relevant regulations shall be penalized by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange or its branches/sub-branches in accordance with Article 48 of the Regulations on Foreign Exchange Administration of the People’s Republic of China.”

X.     Article 19 is revised as Article 18, which reads “Statisticians who violate Article 16 of the Measures shall be penalized in accordance with the law. Banks, dealers, and institutions that provide services such as registration, settlement, and trusteeship that violate Article 16 of the Measures shall be investigated according to the law by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange or its branches/sub-branches regarding their legal responsibilities.”

The Decision also made some adjustments and revisions to the sequence of the paragraphs and to the specific text of the Measures.

The Decision will be implemented as of January 1, 2014.

The Measures for the Collection of Statistics and Declaration of the Balance of Payments are revised and promulgated according to this Decision.

Measures on the Collection of Statistics and Declaration of the Balance of Payments

(Approved by the State Council on August 30, 1995, promulgated by the People’s Bank of China on September 14, 1995 and revised on November 9, 2013 according to the Decision of the State Council on the Revision of the Measures for the Collection of Statistics and Declaration of the Balance of Payments)

Article 1 In order to improve the statistics on the balance of payments, these Measures are formulated in accordance with the Statistical Law of the People’s Republic of China.

Article 2 All economic transactions between Chinese and non-Chinese residents and external financial assets and liabilities of Chinese residents shall be subject to the collection of statistics and declaration of the balance of payments.

Article 3 “Chinese residents” as referred to in the Measures refer to:

1.       Natural persons who have stayed in China for more than one year, with the exception of foreign and Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan students in the territory, medical personnel, and foreign workers in foreign embassies and consulates and their families.

2.       Chinese personnel going abroad for a short period of time (who remain in foreign countries/regions for less than a year), personnel studying in foreign countries and regions, personnel seeking medical advice in foreign countries and regions, and personnel in Chinese embassies and consulates in foreign countries and regions and their family members;

3.       Business entities and public institutions established in accordance with law within the territory of China (including foreign-funded enterprises and foreign financial institutions) and agencies of overseas corporations in China (excluding agencies of international organizations in China and foreign embassies and consulates in China);

4.       Chinese state organs (including Chinese embassies and consulates), groups, and troops.

Article 4 The Measures are applicable to all regions within the territory of China, including bonded areas and bonded warehouses within the territory of China.

Article 5 The State Administration of Foreign Exchange is responsible for organizing and implementing the statistics and the declaration of the balance of payments and carrying out supervision and verification in compliance with the procedures as stipulated in the Statistical Law of the People’s Republic of China; collecting, calculating, and disclosing the information on the balance of payments and international investments; formulating and revising the detailed rules of the Measures; and compiling and issuing the declaration forms and the statistical statement on the balance of payments. The relevant government departments shall assist with the statistics and the declaration of the balance of payments.

Article 6 The statistics and the declaration of the balance of payments shall follow the principle that the declaration is made by the transactional entity, with a combination of indirect and direct declarations and deal-by-deal declarations as well as regular declarations that are adopted for the statistics and the declaration.

Article 7 Chinese residents and non-Chinese residents carrying out economic transactions within the territory of China shall declare the information on the balance of payments in compliance with the relevant regulations in a timely, accurate, and complete manner.

Article 8 Chinese residents who carry out transactions with non-Chinese residents through domestic financial institutions shall declare the content of the transactions through the financial institutions to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange or its branches/sub-branches.

Article 9 Institutions within the territory of China that provide services such as registration, settlement, and trusteeship and dealers engaging in external transactions of securities, futures, and options on a self-run basis or on behalf of their clients shall declare to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange or its branches/sub-branches information about the external transactions, receipts, payments, and dividend payouts.

Article 10 Financial institutions within the territory of China shall declare their self-run external business directly to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange or its branches/sub-branches (including their external financial assets, liabilities, and their variations, profits and receipts and payments of interest, receipts and payments of external financial services and other receipts and payments), and shall fulfill the obligations in their role as an intermediary through which Chinese and non-Chinese residents declare their statistics and the balance of payments to the relevant authorities.

Article 11 Chinese non-financial institutions that open accounts in China shall declare directly to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange or its branches/sub-branches any transactions conducted with non-Chinese residents through overseas accounts and the balance in their accounts.

Article 12 Foreign-funded enterprises within the territory of China, enterprises with direct investments outside the territory of China, and other non-financial institutions with external financial assets and liabilities must declare directly to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange or its branches/sub-branches the information about their external financial assets, liabilities, and their variations, and profits and receipts and payments of dividends and interest.

Article 13 Individuals who are Chinese residents and who have external financial assets and liabilities shall declare the relevant information about their external financial assets and liabilities in accordance with the relevant regulations of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

Article 14 The State Administration of Foreign Exchange or its branches/sub-branches can conduct sample surveys or general surveys on the balance of payments.

Article 15 The State Administration of Foreign Exchange or its branches/sub-branches has the right to check and verify the information declared by Chinese and non-Chinese residents; those making the declarations and the relevant institutions and individuals shall provide the relevant materials and facilitate the inspections and verifications.

Article 16 The State Administration of Foreign Exchange or its branches/sub-branches shall keep strictly confidential the specific data that is declared and which is only to be used for the statistics on the balance of payments. Unless otherwise provided for by the law, the statisticians for the balance of payments shall not provide the specific declared data in any form to any institutions and individuals.

Banks, dealers, and institutions that provide services such as registration, settlement, and trusteeship shall keep strictly confidential the specific declared data about which they have knowledge during the handling of the relevant business.

Article 17 Chinese and non-Chinese residents who fail to carry out the collection of the statistics and the declaration of the balance of payments in accordance with the relevant regulations shall be penalized by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange or its branches/sub-branches in accordance with Article 48 of the Regulations on Foreign Exchange Administration of the People’s Republic of China.”

Article 18 Statisticians who violate Article 16 of the Measures shall be penalized in accordance with the law.  Banks, dealers, and institutions that provide services such as registration, settlement, and trusteeship that violate Article 16 of the Measures shall be investigated by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange or its branches/sub-branches regarding their legal responsibilities according to the law.

Article 19 The State Administration of Foreign Exchange will formulate the Detailed Rules for Implementation of the Measures for the Collection of Statistics and the Declaration of the Balance of Payments.

Article 20 The Measures shall enter into effect as of January 1, 1996.