China revises measures on int'l transaction declaration

BEIJING - China has revised its regulation governing the declaration of international receipts and payments in order to bring the data in line with global standards, a government document said Friday.

The new regulation, endorsed by Premier Li Keqiang, will go into effect on January 1, 2014.

Under the new regulation, statistics collection and declaration will cover all economic transactions between Chinese and non-Chinese citizens, as well as Chinese citizens' outbound financial assets and liabilities. The existing measures, which were promulgated in 1995 by the People's Bank of China, the central bank, do not cover the latter.

Non-Chinese who make economic transactions in Chinese territory will also be required under the new rule to declare their international receipts and payments data, according to the document.

The revision comes as transaction values of international receipts and payments have increased and transactions have diversified in recent years.

It was made in accordance with the International Monetary Fund's sixth edition of its Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual, released in 2008, which raised the requirements regarding data collection.

Experts believe the new measures will improve China's statistics system for international balance of payments while acting as a persuasive force for authorities to beef up monitoring and analysis of cross-border capital flows.

"Uncertain factors in China's international receipts and payments are increasing and irregular cross-border capital flows have become more frequent, so it is necessary to improve the declaration mechanism so authorities can enhance monitoring as well as warning capabilities," said Ding Zhijie, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics.

Zhang Bin, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, added that the revision also puts higher requirements on authorities to hone their approach to collecting statistics.