How to penalize customs statistics for false declarations?

In order to ensure the accuracy of statistical data, the law requires enterprises to truthfully fill in the statistical items on the customs declaration form. If the statistical items are falsely declared and affect customs statistics, the customs may follow the 'Customs Administrative Penalty Implementation Regulations' (hereinafter referred to as 'Punishment Regulations') Article 15 (1) stipulates that enterprises shall be fined less than 10,000 yuan.

The above-mentioned punitive provisions are simple and the fines are not high. However, there are actually many legal problems in the qualitative handling of customs statistical cases: whether the statistical penalty is a 'behavior penalty' or a 'result penalty', which affects statistics and the order of customs supervision What is the difference, whether the declaration error of non-statutory statistical items constitutes a violation of regulations, how to determine the penalty range of statistical cases, etc., the above-mentioned issues are frequently disputed by related enterprises.

1. 'Behavior penalty' or 'result penalty'?

　　 The false declaration of product names, product numbers, and other statistical items affects the accuracy of customs statistics, which constitutes false declarations and violations. So, are customs statistical penalties aimed at enterprises' misdeclaration behavior, or are they aimed at affecting customs' statistical results due to false declarations? In other words, is the statistical penalty a 'behavior penalty' or a 'result penalty'? If it is a 'behavior penalty', that is, a penalty is imposed on a company's misdeclaration, the customs will impose a penalty on every misdeclaration of the company; if it is a 'result penalty', the customs will make a statistical result (usually a statistical month). Report, that is, publish statistical data once a month), and the customs can punish the enterprise once in accordance with the law.

2. How to distinguish between statistics and supervision order?

According to the provisions of Article 15 of the Penalty Regulations, the administrative penalties for false declarations and violations are roughly divided into tax-related (including tax rebates), certificate-related, statistics and customs supervision order. The penalties for tax-related and certificate-related violations have been It is more clear, the author has also analyzed the related issues many times, so I won't repeat them here. Customs statistical penalties are mainly aimed at acts that affect the accuracy of statistics due to false declarations of customs statistics items. So, what does it specifically mean that declarations that affect customs supervision order are not implemented?

　　 Acts that affect the customs supervision order are generalized clauses. Broadly speaking, whether it is tax-related, certificate-related, or non-implementation of declarations that affect customs statistics, it can be said that they affect the customs supervision order. So, under what circumstances can the customs define the non-implementation of the declaration as an act affecting the customs supervision order and impose penalties? The author believes that the specific circumstances affecting the customs supervision order should be clearly stipulated by the legislative department or the General Administration of Customs, otherwise the customs may not be able to follow the penalty clauses that 'affect the customs supervision order'.

In practice, the customs' behavior of false declarations affecting the management of commodity inspection clearance forms, the declaration of tax elements of bonded goods in processing trade or goods in special supervision areas is not implemented, and the declaration of tax elements of export goods is false but does not affect export tax rebates. Qualitative In addition to acts that affect the order of customs supervision, other non-tax-related and certificate-related false declarations are generally punished based on the impact of statistical accuracy (except for non-customs statistical items). It is recommended that the above-mentioned practices be clarified in the legislation, so that there is a clear boundary between the behaviors that affect the customs supervision order in the narrow sense and the accuracy of customs statistics.

3. The legal nature of non-statutory statistical project declaration

Article 6 of the 'Customs Statistics Regulations' stipulates 10 customs statistics items including product name, product code, quantity and price. The 'Customs Import and Export Goods Declaration Form Filling Regulations' (Announcement No. 13 of 2017) lists nearly 50 import and export goods declaration items, some of which are statutory statistical items, and some are not statutory statistical items. So, if an enterprise does not comply with statutory statistical items, if the reporting is not in line with the actual situation, does it constitute a violation of the false declaration?

False declaration of non-statutory statistical items does not constitute a violation of the accuracy of customs statistics. However, if the declaration is not tax-related (including export tax rebates), certificate-related or affects the customs supervision order, relevant regulations can be followed If the treatment does not lead to the above-mentioned consequences, the administrative punishment is unfounded and cannot be punished. For example, if the 'specification and model' of import and export goods is not a statutory customs statistical item, and only the specification and model are declared incorrectly without affecting the correct declaration of tax elements such as the tariff number, the administrative penalty is unfounded and the customs declaration form can be deleted.

4. The range of fines imposed by customs statistics

Article 15 of the 'Punishment Regulations' stipulates that Customs shall impose a fine of not less than 1,000 yuan but not more than 10,000 yuan in statistics of punishment cases. But how to determine the penalty range for specific cases? In the practice of law enforcement, statistics of the case value of penalty cases are generally used as the reference basis for the fine range. The larger the case value, the higher the penalty range, and the maximum shall not exceed 10,000 yuan. As the General Administration of Customs has not regulated the fine range for statistical penalties, at present, each customs office has its own knowledge based on the actual situation in the customs area, and the penalty standards have not yet been unified. After the comprehensive implementation of the national customs clearance reform, the customs inspection abnormal handling system will soon be fully operational. Customs statistical punishment cases that are included in the simple case procedure management will be fully determined by the customs computer network system to determine the penalty range (customs sets the value based on the case value Parameters), so as to realize the unified law enforcement of customs across the country.