Anti-smuggling Effort Pays Off in ShanghaiShanghai customs cracked down 419 smuggling cases during the first half of this year, a 7.1 percent decline on a yearly basis.The smuggled goods were worth 58.65 million yuan (US$7.07 million), a fall of 61. 2 percent compared with the 1999 figure. On the contrary, taxes collected by local customs grew by 30.6 percent year-on-year to a record high of 22.61 billion yuan (US$2.72 billion), accounting for 22.9 percent of the country's total. The taxes included nearly 8.26 billion yuan (US$995.1 million) of tariffs, a 32.3 percent rise on the 1999 level. Anti-smuggling efforts, together with the enforcement of trade order, the increase of domestic demand and the high rise of imports by general trade contribute to the big increase of taxes collected by local customs from January to June this year. During the six-month period, imports and exports declared at the local customs amounted to US$50.05 billion, accounting for 23.3 percent of the nation's total. Local imports by general trade soared 61.1 percent to US$10.08 billion China started a nationwide campaign to combat the rampant smuggling activities in 1998, which has been paying off. |
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