On 23 Oct 2015, the SCC-MEP issued a public notice, urging that arrears due from applicants for completion of a chemical status comprehensive search should be paid within 2 months.
Chinese authorities have been offering an inquiry service for confirmation whether a substance is new or existing since 15 Oct 2003 when China’s new chemical substance notification system lunched. The basic online search in IECSC is used to tell whether a substance is an existing substance or not. However, as some confidential substances are not accessible, it does not necessarily mean the substance is a new chemical substance in China if no match is found using the online search. In this instance, a comprehensive inquiry to the CRC-MEP (now replaced by SCC-MEP) is recommended.
In the beginning, this was a free service. Since its inception, uptake of the service has increased year on year, placing a greater administrative burden on authorities which has seen a knock-on price increase from 200 RMB in 2009 to 600 RMB since 1 Jan 2013 (CL news).
At present, if the client has more than one substance, searches can be conducted in batches. A one of final payment can be made after all the results are issued. Payment should be made within 3 months of receiving the final results. However, a large number of enterprises using this service have defaulted on their payments. To eliminate the occurrence of such cases, the SCC-MEP will further standardize the search inquiry payment process and only issue search results after the fee is paid. Failure to pay fees within 2 month will see SCC-MEP disclose enterprise information on their website and can result in legal actions and late fee charges.
