Outlying Islands Duty-free Dividend Makes Lawbreakers Smell "Business Opportunities" Hainan continues to crack down on illegal crimes of "set purchasing"

□ Xing Dongwei and Zhai Xiaogong, reporters of this newspaper

On holidays, Hainan's major outlying island duty-free shops are one of the check-in locations for citizens and tourists, and the popularity of the outlying island duty-free market makes queuing for shopping become the norm for Hainan outlying island duty-free shops.

The duty-free policy for outlying islands is an important part of the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port, and it is also an important starting point for driving the return of overseas high-end consumption and consumption upgrading. With the deepening of the duty-free policy on Hainan's outlying islands, duty-free shopping on outlying islands has flourished, and has gradually become a highlight in the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port and international tourism consumption center.

In recent years, more and more tourists have really enjoyed the benefits of the duty-free policy on outlying islands, and at the same time, more and more criminals have smelled "business opportunities" and waited for the opportunity to take advantage of the duty-free shopping quota of other people's outlying islands to organize gangs to purchase duty-free goods on outlying islands for secondary sales for profit, thus giving rise to the new illegal crime of smuggling "set purchasing".

To accelerate the construction of a free trade port with Chinese characteristics with world influence, only "manageable" can it be "liberalized". So, how to control the "set of purchasing", promote better "liberalization", effectively prevent the risk of smuggling of duty-free goods in free trade ports, and establish and improve a comprehensive anti-smuggling management system that is compatible with the construction of free trade ports? A reporter from the "Rule of Law Daily" recently conducted a visit and investigation.

Tempted by huge spread profits

Criminals target the set of purchasing

Since its implementation in April 2011, the tax exemption policy for Hainan Islands has been adjusted many times and the value of the policy has been continuously increased. After the implementation of the "Overall Plan for the Construction of Hainan Free Trade Port", the duty-free shopping quota for outlying island tourists has been increased from 4,3 yuan to 10,38 yuan, the types of duty-free goods have increased from 45 to <> categories, and the policy dividends have been continuously released, and the island duty-free has gradually become a "golden brand" for the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port and international tourism consumption center.

According to the relevant regulations, the duty-free goods purchased on the outlying islands are commodities for consumers' personal use, have been exempted from customs duties, import value-added tax and consumption tax, and cannot enter the domestic market for resale.

However, while the duty-free market on outlying islands is booming, some criminals are eyeing the "set of purchases" of "getting rich". The so-called "set purchase" includes two meanings: set purchase and purchasing. Arbitrage purchase mainly refers to using the name of others to purchase duty-free goods using other people's quota. Purchasing is the act of using one's own quota to purchase duty-free goods for others for the purpose of profit or re-sell the purchased duty-free goods in the domestic market, in short, "buying for others".

The reporter's investigation found that the smuggling gangs engaged in tax exemption on Hainan's outlying islands have their own purchase and sales networks, and most of the organizers and participants are young people. They are generally highly educated, highly intelligent, have a thorough understanding of the market for trendy things, and know that some hot-selling cosmetics and electronic products may have a certain price difference in China, and use the Hainan Islands tax exemption policy to smuggle for profit.

Why is the smuggling of "set purchasing" repeatedly banned? The reporter noticed that this is mainly because the difference between domestic and foreign prices of imported goods is relatively large, and the "price difference" of goods after tax exemption has given the soil for the survival of "set purchases". Under the temptation of huge price difference profits, many people took risks and embarked on the road of no return of "set purchase" smuggling crimes.

The illegal and criminal act of "set purchasing" not only evades the supervision of duty-free goods on outlying islands and evades state taxes, but also disrupts Hainan's normal tourism and market order.

According to the law, individuals who resell, purchase or smuggle duty-free goods in violation of the duty-free shopping policy for outlying island tourists shall be included in their credit records in accordance with laws and regulations, and shall not enjoy the duty-free policy on Hainan Islands for three years; Where smuggling constitutes an act or a violation of customs supervision provisions, the customs shall deal with it in accordance with relevant provisions, and if a crime is constituted, criminal responsibility shall be pursued in accordance with law.

There are many cases of smuggling on behalf of the daigou

The police and the sea are linked to the crackdown

"Get moving!" On March 3, under the unified command of the Anti-Smuggling Bureau of the General Administration of Customs and the Hainan Provincial Public Security Department, and with the cooperation of the Coast Police Corps of the Hainan Provincial Public Security Department, the Sanya Municipal Public Security Bureau of Hainan Province and the Taizhou Municipal Public Security Bureau of Zhejiang Province, Haikou Customs, together with the Hainan Provincial Anti-Smuggling Office and Hangzhou Customs, launched a centralized network collection operation code-named "HN16" to crack down on duty-free "set purchase" smuggling on Hainan's outlying islands.

This operation destroyed a criminal gang specializing in duty-free "set purchase" smuggling on Hainan's outlying islands, arrested 25 smuggling suspects, including 21 cargo owners and team leaders, 4 funders and organizers, and seized 4 warehouses for transshipment of duty-free goods in Haikou, Shenzhen and other places, realizing the whole chain of crackdown on the smuggling of criminal gangs. After preliminary investigation, the case was worth more than 7600 million yuan.

Cracking down on duty-free "set purchase" smuggling on Hainan's outlying islands is taking action throughout the country.

In February this year, with the assistance of the Hainan Provincial Anti-Smuggling Office and the local public security departments of Guangdong and Hainan Provinces, the anti-smuggling department of Zhanjiang Customs launched a special operation to crack down on the smuggling of duty-free "set purchases" on Hainan's outlying islands, seizing more than 2 cases of duty-free cosmetics and foreign wines on Hainan Islands, with a case value of about 800 million yuan. After investigation, a number of upstream and downstream smuggling gangs headed by Wu used the tourism business as a cover to carry out "set purchasing" and smuggled duty-free goods from Hainan's outlying islands through the channel of "mail delivery".

With the cooperation of Haikou Customs and local public security organs, Guangzhou Customs last year organized a special operation to crack down on duty-free "set purchase" smuggling on Hainan's outlying islands, smashing a total of 23 gangs involved in the case, and seizing a batch of cosmetics, foreign wine and other duty-free items suspected of smuggling on the spot. After preliminary investigation, the value of the case was about 6000 million yuan.

In March this year, Ningbo Customs cracked a case of duty-free "set purchase" smuggling on Hainan Islands. After investigation, it was found that the criminal suspect Wu Moumou used the duty-free shopping quota provided by relatives and friends and local college student Zhang Moumou in Hainan to purchase Hainan duty-free goods online and offline for online sales, with a case value of more than 3 million yuan. At present, both Wu and Zhang have been taken criminal compulsory measures.

On October 2022, 10, Zhanjiang Customs launched a surprise investigation operation against four express delivery companies in Zhanjiang, Maoming and other places, seizing 31 boxes and about 4,134 pieces of duty-free goods suspected of being smuggled on Hainan Islands, such as cosmetics and foreign wine, with a case value of about 3000.350 million yuan.

Civil air defense and technical defense are closely integrated

Building an anti-smuggling "firewall" together

In order to support the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port, starting from April 4, duty-free shopping for tourists from Hainan Islands will add "guaranteed pick-up" and "immediate pick-up" two pickup methods on the basis of "mail delivery" and "return to the island" in 1.

While the "upgrade" of the duty-free shopping policy on outlying islands, how to strengthen the supervision of the risk of smuggling duty-free goods on outlying islands, effectively put an end to the illegal crime of "set purchase" smuggling on outlying islands, and build a Hainan duty-free shopping brand is a new issue that must be faced.

Supervision is strict, and it is difficult to buy an inch. In recent years, in accordance with the arrangements of the Hainan Provincial Party Committee and the Hainan Provincial Government, all departments in the province have not only "made good use of the tax exemption policy for outlying islands", but also strictly waited for the implementation of the policy before, during and after supervision and risk prevention and resolution, strengthened the coordination of various departments, adhered to the combination of civil air defense and technical defense, and used science and technology and information technology to form a joint force of joint management and joint prevention and joint management, so as to "manage" risks, make it difficult to carry out arbitrage and smuggling, ensure the smooth realization of the tax exemption policy on outlying islands, and ensure the operation of customs closure on the whole island.

It is understood that in order to prevent criminals from flocking to Hainan duty-free shops and prevent duty-free goods from being purchased, smuggled and resold, Hainan integrates big data resources through the comprehensive use of advanced perception means of Hainan social management information platform, strengthens the cooperation between "online" and "offline" work, conducts imperceptible supervision of duty-free shopping on outlying islands, resolutely maintains normal shopping order, and improves consumer shopping experience.

In recent years, Haikou Customs has continued to improve the efficiency of supervision services, comprehensively built an integrated work pattern of "fighting, prevention and control", resolutely prevented and cracked down on smuggling, and made every effort to ensure the high-quality development of the duty-free policy on outlying islands.

The General Administration of Customs issued the Announcement on Promulgating the Measures for the Supervision of Duty-free Shopping by Tourists from Hainan Outlying Islands, which clearly punishes acts such as purchasing on behalf of tourists for the purpose of profit, and may be included in relevant credit records. Hainan has promulgated the "Work Plan for Risk Prevention and Control of Outlying Islands Duty-free Shopping Policy", which has incorporated the content of credit supervision, and jointly punished the untrustworthy conduct of outlying islands for duty-free and untrustworthy conduct.

According to the Interim Measures for the Traceability Management of Duty-free Commodities in Hainan Free Trade Port, from August 2021, 8, the traceability code management of duty-free commodities on Hainan Islands has been implemented, realizing that the source can be checked, the whereabouts can be traced, and the responsibility can be investigated.

The reporter recently walked into the major duty-free shops and pick-up windows in Hainan, and the warning signs played on a rolling basis were very conspicuous: "Arbitrage purchase of duty-free goods for profit may constitute a smuggling crime" and "Illegal lending of personal quotas for profit may bear legal responsibility"... Short, powerful letters, always remind everyone what not to do.

In March this year, the Hainan Provincial Administration for Market Regulation issued the "3 "Iron Fist" Action Plan for the Investigation and Handling of Cases in the Field of People's Livelihood", deploying and carrying out "Iron Fist" law enforcement actions, focusing on investigating and dealing with 2023 types of illegal acts such as "set purchasing" of duty-free goods on Hainan's outlying islands.

It is understood that in the next step, Hainan will further clarify the division of responsibilities, the provincial private office will do a good job in the comprehensive coordination of anti-smuggling, Haikou Customs will assume the main responsibility of supervision, the provincial social management platform will play the role of anti-smuggling module, establish and improve the joint prevention and control mechanism with Guangdong and Guangxi, strengthen the supervision of the delivery industry, strengthen the publicity of the duty-free shopping policy on outlying islands, ensure the smooth implementation of the duty-free policy on outlying islands, and strive to achieve the goal of "satisfying honest shoppers and making it difficult for illegal shoppers to move forward".