Postal items under customs supervision

Since the Wenzhou General Post Office was established in December 1896 (the 22nd year of Guangxu), which was also managed by Ou Customs, its business scope has gradually expanded. Since May 1, 1898 (the 24th year of Guangxu), domestic and international postal items business has been launched. Starting from November 14 of the same year, it also launched insured parcel business. In 1911 (the third year of Xuantong), after my country's postal service became independent from the customs, Ou Customs stationed personnel at the post office to be responsible for the inspection and taxation of mailed items. On the eve of the liberation of Wenzhou in May 1949, the customs office in the post office was known to the outside world as the Ou Customs Post Office Branch.

For a long time before the founding of the People's Republic of China, the customs also managed domestic trade and levied tariffs on domestic re-exported goods. Therefore, in addition to supervising inbound and outbound postal items, Ou Customs also supervised domestic postal items. Items have also been inspected and taxed. After the wartime consumption tax that was originally collected by the customs was abolished in January 1945, local goods shipped domestically were exempted from tariffs. However, the customs still has the task of inspecting goods subject to tax and prohibited and restricted items. Therefore, domestic postal parcels Inspection continues.

Before the founding of the People’s Republic of China, although there were thousands of people living abroad in Wenzhou, due to the restrictions of the economic conditions at that time, there were few postal parcels in and out of the country under the supervision of Ou Customs, which were generally mailing Western medicine from abroad. Odd personal items.

After the liberation of Wenzhou in May 1949, Ou Customs continued to station personnel at the post office to be responsible for the inspection of postal parcels. On March 4, 1950, Ou Customs was renamed Shanghai Customs Wenzhou Branch. The original name of Ou Customs Branch at the Post Office was no longer applicable and was canceled in late the next month. Later, when the postal parcel matter was published to the outside world, it was changed to the name of Wenzhou Customs Branch. On September 20, 1950, in accordance with the instructions of the General Administration of Customs and with the consent of the Wenzhou Post Office, the customs branch canceled the original post office method of collecting import taxes for international parcels and deducting handling fees. Soon, as the scope of customs duties changed, the General Administration of Customs and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications issued a joint instruction on December 22, 1950, stipulating that starting from January 1, 1951, customs across the country would stop supervising domestic postal parcels. As for the inspection of domestic postal parcels, The goods tax and prohibited and restricted transport items in the package will be handled by the post office instead. Because the Wenzhou Post Office could not keep up with the preparation work, the Wenzhou branch postponed its supervision of domestic postal parcels until February 16, 1951, and the Wenzhou Post Office was responsible for inspection.

After Wenzhou Customs Branch stopped supervising domestic postal parcels, because the number of international parcels imported and exported by Wenzhou was not large at that time, it no longer stationed personnel at the post office. If international postal parcels came in and out, the post office would notify the branch. Customs officers will be dispatched to handle inspection and tax collection procedures. From the liberation of Wenzhou in May 1949 to the cancellation of the Wenzhou Customs Branch in December 1954, Wenzhou Customs strictly supervised 1,462 import and export parcels. After December 1954, imported international postal items were transferred to the local customs for inspection by the International Mail Exchange Bureau in Shanghai and other places. Exported international postal items were handled by the post office in accordance with the management regulations of re-export parcels in other mainland cities.

After the Wenzhou Customs was restructured in March 1973, according to the instructions of the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Foreign Trade on April 2 of that year, international postal items in Wenzhou and Lishui areas should be inspected by the Customs. Therefore, after a period of preparation, Wenzhou Customs and Wenzhou Post Office negotiated with Shanghai Customs and Shanghai Post Office and determined that starting from July 1, 1974, the supervision of inbound and outbound international postal items in Wenzhou and Lishui areas will be transferred to Wenzhou Customs is responsible. International postal items sent by the international mail exchange bureaus to these two regions are sent directly to Wenzhou Post Office and handed over to Wenzhou Customs for opening and inspection; international postal items sent from these two areas are inspected by Wenzhou Customs and handed over to Wenzhou Post Office for sorting. The shipping route is directly to each international mail exchange office. The specific supervision of the inbound and outbound international postal items is handled by the Wenzhou Customs Office at the Post Office. In addition, according to the "Customs Supervision Measures for Imported and Exported Postal Items" issued by the Ministry of Foreign Trade on September 5, 1964, the scope of customs inspection of international postal items should also include printed matter (non-trade).

Therefore, after Wenzhou Customs contacted relevant departments, it took over the inspection work of international printed matter imported and exported from Wenzhou and Lishui areas starting from May 1, 1976.

The Wenzhou Customs Post Office Office was originally located in the Wenzhou General Post and Telecommunications Bureau on Xinhe Street. In March 1985, in order to expand its business premises, the Wenzhou Post Office decided to move the Wenzhou Customs inspection site for imported and exported mail items to the postal station in Banyao Bridge in the western suburbs; on June 1, 1992, it moved to the Xueshan Road Mail Processing Center in the building.

As Wenzhou is a hometown of overseas Chinese, by the end of 1990, there were more than 100,000 overseas Chinese from Wenzhou distributed in more than 50 countries and regions around the world. In addition, since the reform and opening up in my country, the number of outbound people from Wenzhou has continued to increase, so the number of international postal items entering and leaving the country has increased year by year, reaching 119,606 items in 1990, which was 6.9 times the 17,335 items in 1978 before the reform and opening up, including 86 parcels. 848 cases, 5.6 times the 15,528 cases in 1978, making Wenzhou Customs one of the top 10 customs in the country that supervises the largest number of inbound and outbound postal parcels.

According to the above-mentioned "Customs Supervision Measures for Imported and Exported Postal Items" issued by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and its subsequent revised measures, the inbound and outbound postal items supervised by Wenzhou Customs only include parcels, small parcels of mail, cargo samples and printed matter ( Letters (non-trade) are generally not subject to supervision. However, if a letter is used to carry items (currency), the post office will hand over the relevant letter and the items contained therein to the customs for processing.

After the mail bag carrying the imported mail parcel arrives at the Wenzhou Post Office, the post office will notify the Wenzhou Customs office in the post office to send personnel to jointly open the mail bag. This pouch is regulated as an imported pouch. The original parcel list in the bag must be made in duplicate, and one copy shall be handed over to the customs by the post office so that customs officers can check the number of parcels or small parcels of mail in the bag, and then inspection will begin.

Wenzhou Customs uses the tax declaration form of the parcel or the "green label" of the small parcel as the basis for accepting the recipient's declaration of the parcel, and uses it to check whether the items in the parcel match the declared name, price, and quantity consistent. In order to speed up the mail shipment, Wenzhou Post Office will handle the inspection procedures with the customs on the spot on behalf of the recipient, and will be responsible for opening and resealing the parcel. The Wenzhou Post Office will charge the recipient an inspection fee. The folding and resealing of postal parcels must be carried out jointly by personnel from the customs and the post office.

Customs’ management of import and export personal parcels strictly adheres to the principle of limiting gifts to relatives and friends to a reasonable amount for personal use. In order to facilitate normal exchanges, take care of reasonable needs, and prevent speculation and profit-making, the customs has stipulated limits and limits on inbound and outbound postal parcels. As the objective situation changes, the limits and restrictions on postal parcels have been adjusted many times and gradually relaxed. Starting from January 1, 1988, Wenzhou Customs has adjusted the limits for inbound and outbound postal items stipulated in the "Regulations on the Supervision of Imported and Exported Postal Items" revised in 1984 by the General Administration of Customs. The value of parcels in Hong Kong and Macao has been increased from RMB 100 to RMB 200, and the limit for receiving and sending parcels per household throughout the year is RMB 1,000 each. The limit for parcels in Hong Kong and Macao has been increased from RMB 30 to RMB 100, and the limit for each household throughout the year has been raised. The limit for collection and delivery is still RMB 300 each. (According to the regulations of the General Administration of Customs, starting from November 21, 1994, the limit value of personal items sent from or to Hong Kong and Macao is RMB 800 per time, and the tax exemption is RMB 400; if it is sent from Or personal belongings sent outside the above-mentioned areas, the limit value allowed for each entry and exit is RMB 1,000, and the tax exemption is RMB 500). For items such as Chinese herbal medicines and Chinese patent medicines mailed out of the country, Wenzhou Customs has implemented the General Administration of Customs' "Customs Management Regulations on Passengers Carrying and Personal Mailing of Chinese Herbal Medicines and Chinese Patent Medicines Out of the Country" since July 1, 1990, and mailed to Hong Kong and Macao. The value is limited to RMB 100, and if it is sent abroad, the value is limited to RMB 200. Regarding personal postal items forwarded to Taiwan, the General Administration of Customs stipulated on April 1, 1988: Personal postal items forwarded into or forwarded to Taiwan through Hong Kong and Macao shall be based on the personal postal items sent from or to Hong Kong and Macao. Handling of postal items: Personal postal items forwarded to or forwarded to Taiwan through foreign countries shall be handled as inbound and outbound international postal items.

Items that are prohibited from being imported or exported as specified by the customs are not allowed to be mailed (including carried by individuals) into or out of the country. According to the announcement of the General Administration of Customs on November 1, 1987, items prohibited from entry include: various weapons, ammunition and explosives; counterfeit currency and counterfeit securities; printed matter that is harmful to China's politics, economy, culture and morality , film, photos, records, videos, audio tapes, video tapes, laser discs, computer storage media and other items; various potent poisons; opium, morphine, heroin, marijuana and other addictive narcotics and psychotropic substances ; Animals, plants and their products containing dangerous germs, pests and other harmful organisms; food, medicine or other goods that are harmful to the health of humans and animals, come from epidemic areas, and can spread diseases; etc. Items prohibited from leaving the country include: All items included in the prohibited entry scope; manuscripts, printed matter, films, photographs, records, films, audio tapes, video tapes, laser discs, computer storage media and other items involving state secrets; precious cultural relics and other cultural relics prohibited from export; Endangered and precious animals, plants (including specimens) and their seeds and propagating materials, etc. Starting from December 15, 1992, according to the joint decision of the General Administration of Customs and the Ministry of Public Security, imitation weapons were listed as prohibited entry and exit items. In addition, in order to prevent AIDS from entering our country, the import of all blood products except human serum protein is prohibited.

The threshold for tariffs on imported postal items is RMB 1 yuan, and those with a tax price below 1 yuan are exempted. In addition to enjoying inspection-free and tax-free treatment according to regulations, imported postal items also have specific provisions on the tax exemption amount. On December 1, 1985, the General Administration of Customs stipulated that imported international postal parcels with a tax of less than RMB 50 per time, or parcels sent from Hong Kong and Macao with a tax of less than RMB 10 per time, will be released duty-free. If the tax exemption amount exceeds, only the excess amount will be levied, but if the amount exceeds the tax exemption amount by less than RMB 1, it will still be exempted. If it is inspected as tax-free, the customs will stamp the "duty-free release" seal on the parcel and hand it to the post office for delivery. If it is a taxable parcel, the customs will issue a tax payment certificate in triplicate form, and then deliver the parcel and payment certificate to the post office. The post office delivery bureau will collect the tax, and the customs will pay 2% of the tax amount to the post office as a collection procedure. fee.

For exported personal parcels, the sender or post office must declare to the customs for customs inspection. After inspection and release, an "inspection" stamp will be stamped on the mail. Small parcels of less than 1 kilogram will be stamped with a "green label". Parcels of more than 1 kilogram and less than 20 kilograms will be handed over after a release stamp is stamped on the parcel slip. The post office handles the delivery procedures.

As the number of imported and exported parcels continues to increase, in order to speed up inspection and release for the convenience of recipients and senders, the Wenzhou Customs Post Office Office has adopted a serious scientific attitude and a pioneering and innovative spirit since 1986. , took practical and practical measures to reform the postal parcel inspection methods. For export parcels, an inspection method that combines document review, appearance inspection, technical inspection and parcel opening has been adopted, thus reducing the opening rate of export parcels from the original 100 to less than 10. For imported postal parcels, they are mainly foreign small parcels. Foreign small parcels have the characteristics of many duty-free packages and software items. For soft packages within the tax-free amount, they are generally not allowed to be opened and will only be released after passing technical inspection. The opening rate has also increased from The original 100 dropped to around 50. In this way, during the inspection of postal parcels, the key points are highlighted, the role of technical inspection is fully utilized, the efficiency is improved, and the phenomenon of parcel pressing is avoided. However, after the reform of inspection methods, the Wenzhou Customs Office at the Post Office still strengthens the postal parcel sorting process, deploys forces from time to time to open and dismantle basic packages of imported and exported postal parcels, conducts outstanding inspections, and effectively plays the role of customs supervision.

Non-trade printed materials entering and leaving the country include newspapers, magazines, printed or copied books, calendars, wall calendars, pictures, photos, stamps, slides, flyers, slogan stickers, advertisements and various audio and video products, etc. (hereinafter referred to as printed matter), its entry and exit methods and purposes are all carried, mailed, consigned, imported and exported by individuals at home and abroad, for personal use, mutual gifts, or free gifts, exchanges and exchanges between domestic and foreign manufacturers, academic and propaganda institutions, and people's organizations. For promotional purposes.

Most of these non-trade printed materials belong to normal exchanges between people of various countries, or international exchanges of science, technology, culture and art. But there are also a small part that often contains some unhealthy, pornographic, and even very reactionary content. In order to prevent the import and export of these printed materials that are harmful to the people and the country, and to prevent the use of imported and exported printed matter for smuggling activities and leaking state secrets, the customs must also supervise and manage non-trade printed matter. Since Wenzhou Customs began to supervise printed matter in May 1976, it has seized many printed matters with reactionary, pornographic and obscene content every year and confiscated them in accordance with regulations. From 1977 to 1990, Wenzhou Customs confiscated the number of items of inbound and outbound non-trade printed matter (including audio and video products).

After the imported printed matter bags arrive at the post office, the post office hand them over to the customs for separate opening and inspection. Printed materials approved for release after review will be handed over to the post office for posting. Before exported printed matter is submitted to the post office for posting, it must first be submitted to the customs for inspection, and sometimes a report form needs to be filled in. After customs inspection and approval, the customs stamps a "triangle stamp" on the mail, and the post office can handle the posting procedures.