Enterprises should pay attention to laws and regulations to take effect on April 1.

China's first code for e-business, governing electronic signature specifically, will be in effect as of April 1, 2005. In the mean time, legislators are making intensive studies on legal issues concerning bill of lading, jurisdiction and taxation and revising laws for contracts, notes and protection of consumers.

China has no special law for online payment except for a regulation concerning credit card business promulgated by the central bank. The service of payment settlement for e-business is neither open to foreign capital nor available by domestic non-banking financial institutions. In this case, companies engaging in e-business are arranging the third-party payment by themselves.

Insiders warned that this practice would bring risks of using transaction fund illegally as their third-party payment platform which is based on China UnionPay put the capital under their direct control without the supervision of the banking regulatory agency.

The security and multilateral recognition of certification are also questionable according to insiders because the widely used SSL based e-payment system at present sends trading messages to companies involved in the deal first.

Intermediaries, information and technical service providers, as well as dozens of other sectors, will face raised corporate income tax of 15 percent, compared with the 10 percent before the hike.

Imported auto parts which are defined as vehicles will be levied taxes for vehicles. According to China's WTO commitment, imported automobiles are subject to 25 percent duties while tariffs for auto parts stand at 10 percent by 2006.

The first national standards for nanomaterials will be put into effect. It lays a foundation for

market access and technical standards system.

Other rules to be effective the same day involve auto sales, housing pawn, and there are local rules regulating budget making, social security, cigarette marketing and thunder prevention facilities at recreation places in Beijing.

By People's Daily Online