Circular of Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce,

SAT Beijing Municipal Office, Beijing Local Taxation Bureau and Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau on

Further Optimizing the Business Environment and Improving the Efficiency of Business Approval

The People's Governments of all districts and all related departments of Beijing Municipality,

To deeply implement the spirit of the decision of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on deepening business environment reform and follow the work plan of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee and Beijing Municipal People's Government, we hereby propose the requirements concerning furthering optimizing the business environment and improving the business approval efficiency as follows:

I. Guidelines

We shall thoroughly implement the guiding principles of the Nineteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, follow the gist of the important instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping and planning of the State Council regarding intensifying reform of the business environment, adhere to problem orientation, standard as a national capital and reform and innovation, vigorously promote administration streamlining and power delegation to lower levels driven by the reform of the commercial system, deepen the reform of simplification of administrative procedures, delegation of powers, combination of decentralization and control, and optimization of services, reduce flows, duration and costs, adopt targeted steps for providing quality public services, and solve the "last mile" problem existing with the business environment, aiming at stimulating market vitality and social creativity, advancing the construction of a modern economic system, promoting high-quality development and constituting a more friendly environment for business startup.

II. Objectives

We should reduce the process necessary for business approval to 4 steps and the duration to 5 days by the end of March 2018 to provide excellent public services allowing both business access and operation, of which business registration shall be closed within 3 days, stamp curving in 1 day and invoice claim within 1 day. All districts shall, based on their respective actual conditions, take initiative in reducing handling flows, duration and costs. We shall accelerate the launch of online handling of business registration applications, established online service platforms in this regard, and incorporated all matters involving examination and service into the online platform, thus reaching a world advanced level.

III. Arrangements

1. Set up district-level business registration halls

Each district shall set up a business registration hall at the district-level government service center and accept all business registration-related issues at one window to achieve "one window for all". We shall actively promote standardized construction of the business registration hall where departments of industry and commerce and taxation shall reside and allocate proper services including stamp curving and bank account opening. All matters involving examination and approval shall be enabled with "one-window acceptance, backstage circulation, one-shot application and whole-process closing". Auxiliary administrative staff shall be increased by means of governmental purchase of services to achieve "one-stop service".

2. Build the municipal online service platform for business registration

We shall greatly improve the level of Internet Plus government services, open up "ewt", a one-window online service system covering all matters for business registration to unify the standards for information sharing and exchange among departments following the principles of "same source for same data, information sharing and collaborative handling", clear the channel for information sharing among different hierarchies and departments and gradually realize coordinated and concurrent closing of online license issuance for business registration and online invoice claim.

3. Optimize business registration procedures and improve its level of facilitation

We shall comprehensively promote the reforms of "separation between license/permit" and "multiple permits in one", further simplify files, sheets and materials for business registration and realize standardized scope of business. We shall further optimize pre-approval and registration of the company name and realize citywide coverage of autonomous pre-query. We shall push "whole-process electronic operation" of business registration, realize whole-coverage and whole-process handling of business registration and gradually expand applicability of electronic business licenses.

4. Raise efficiency of taxation registration and realize day invoice claim of enterprises at first application

We will launch express service for VAT invoice application, further simplify the application and claim process for taxpayer's VAT invoice, implement online payment for tax control equipment and greatly shorten the time for invoice claim. Any eligible taxpayer will have to travel to the tax service hall only once before he claims and issues the tax control device and the VAT invoice within 1 day. A window for handling both state taxation and local taxation shall be set up to close all related formalities within 1 day. In case no local taxation-related matters are involved, an enterprise does not need to make separation registration to the local taxation department.

5. Further raise the efficiency of stamp curbing.

The public security department shall intensify online data exchange with the industrial and commercial administration department, improve the real-time automatic filing mechanism for official stamp curving. We will offer free of charge official stamp to the new enterprises.

IV. Requirements

(I) Strengthen overall coordination

Beijing Administration for Industry & Commerce shall take the lead to set up a special team for improving business approval efficiency with all relevant municipal units and push forward all work related to the improvement of business approval efficiency and optimization of the business environment in a coordinated manner. All districts shall also set up their respective district-level work teams referring to the municipal work mechanism to develop plans for improving business approval efficiency.

(II) Strengthening publicity and guidance

All relevant departments shall make proper publicity by interpreting and answering hotspot and difficult problems in the reform process in a timely manner through multiple carriers including the government website, media, microblog and Wechat, so that the market entities, intermediary agencies and the public are full informed of the reform policies, thus creating a sound atmosphere for supporting and participating in reforms.

(III) Strengthen implementation safeguarding

We shall deepen the team building of the window service personnel and sufficiently allocate window service personnel and resources to ensure efficient operation of the window services. We shall conduct trainings targeted at optimizing business approval issues to improve the personnel's capacity and level.

(IV) Strengthen work execution

All departments shall effectively implement all policies issued, firmly honor all commitments to the society and spare no efforts for constant optimization of the business environment of the capital city.

Appendix: Division of Responsibilities for Improving the Efficiency of Business Setup

Beijing Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce
SAT Beijing Municipal Office
Beijing Local Taxation Bureau
Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau

March 14, 2018