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Article 79: Those who violate the provisions of this Law by manufacturing, installing, modifying, carrying out major repairs on special equipment, or cleaning boilers without undergoing supervision and inspection shall be ordered to make corrections within a specified time limit; If the violation is not corrected within the prescribed time, a fine of not less than 50,000 yuan but not more than 200,000 yuan shall be imposed ; If there are illegal gains, such gains shall be confiscated ; In serious cases, the production license shall be revoked. Interpretation of the provision: This article specifies the legal responsibilities related to the manufacture, installation, modification, major repairs of special equipment, as well as boiler cleaning, in the absence of supervision and inspection. I. Subjects liable under law When identifying the subjects responsible for the illegal acts specified in this article, two points should be taken into account: 1. The subjects responsible for the illegal acts mentioned in this article are not all units that manufacture, install, modify, or repair special equipment, nor are they all units that clean boilers. The legal liability stipulated in this article corresponds to the provisions of Article 25 and Paragraph 2 of Article 44 of this Law. According to these provisions, the entities subject to the legal liability outlined in this article are divided into three categories: first, the manufacturers of special equipment such as boilers, pressure vessels, and pressure pipeline components; second, the units responsible for the installation, modification, and major repairs of boilers, pressure vessels, pressure pipelines, elevators, lifting machinery, passenger cableways, and large-scale amusement facilities ; Third are the boiler cleaning companies. 2. The illegal entities specified in this article that have not undergone supervision and inspection in accordance with the law are primarily those units that have already obtained permits for manufacturing, installation, modification, or repair. Enterprises, organizations, individual industrial and commercial households, and natural persons that have not obtained these permits and engage in the activities specified in Article 25 and Paragraph 2 of Article 44 of this Law without undergoing supervision and inspection shall not be regarded as illegal entities that have failed to undergo such supervision and inspection under this article; they shall not be punished in accordance with the provisions of this article, but rather shall be considered illegal entities engaged in production without permits, and shall be punished in accordance with the relevant provisions of Article 74 of this Law. II. Illegal acts subject to legal liability Article 25 of this Law stipulates that the manufacturing process of special equipment such as boilers, pressure vessels, and pressure pipeline components, as well as the installation, modification, and major repair processes of boilers, pressure vessels, pressure pipelines, elevators, lifting machinery, passenger cableways, and large-scale amusement facilities, must be subject to supervision and inspection by special equipment inspection agencies in accordance with the requirements of safety technical specifications ; It shall not be released from the factory or put into use if it has not undergone supervised inspection or has failed such inspection. Paragraph 2 of Article 44 of this Law stipulates that boiler cleaning shall be carried out in accordance with the requirements of safety technical specifications, and subject to supervision and inspection by special equipment inspection agencies. Carrying out the aforementioned activities without undergoing supervision and inspection in accordance with the requirements of safety technical specifications constitutes an illegal act. When determining the illegal acts stipulated in this article, attention should be paid to the following three aspects: 1. The act of carrying out operations without supervision and inspection as specified in this article falls into two categories: one is where the manufacturing, installation, modification, major repair, or cleaning of special equipment has not yet been completed, but according to relevant technical specifications, production in the next stage can only proceed after the previous stage has been inspected and found to be satisfactory; yet the relevant production units proceed with the next stage of production without conducting such inspections as required. Second, the aforementioned activities have been completed, but inspections should have been carried out in accordance with the requirements of relevant technical specifications, yet no such inspections were done. 2. Supervisory inspections regarding the major repair process. Supervisory inspections are required during the major repair processes of boilers, pressure vessels, pressure pipelines, elevators, lifting machinery, passenger cableways, and large-scale amusement facilities. The major repair process here is not a regular repair process; regular repair processes do not require supervision and inspection. What constitutes a \"major repair\" can be specified by the safety technical regulations. 3. Article 25 of this Law stipulates that products shall not be released from the factory or put into use without undergoing supervision and inspection, or if they fail such inspection. Among them, “leave the factory” refers to manufacturing activities; if special equipment such as boilers, pressure vessels, and pressure pipeline components is released from the factory without undergoing supervision and inspection, penalties shall be imposed in accordance with the provisions of this article. III. Differences between the provisions of this Article and those of the “Regulations on the Safety Supervision of Special Equipment” The provisions of this Article differ from those in the State Council’s “Regulations on the Safety Supervision of Special Equipment” in two main aspects: First, the special equipment whose manufacturing process must be subject to supervision and inspection includes boilers, pressure vessels, components of pressure pipelines, and other similar equipment. This Law primarily lists these three categories of pressure-bearing special equipment. The Regulations on the Safety Supervision of Special Equipment also stipulate that the manufacturing process of two types of mechanical and electrical special equipment, namely lifting machinery and large-scale amusement facilities, must also be subject to supervision and inspection. The law lists three categories of pressure-bearing special equipment, mainly taking into account the fact that comprehensive measures are already in place to ensure safety: administrative permits are required for the manufacturers of lifting machinery and large-scale amusement facilities, and supervision and inspection are carried out during their installation process. Additionally, in light of the reforms ongoing in the area of administrative approval procedures, and after consulting relevant departments, supervision and inspection of the manufacturing process for these two types of mechanical and electrical special equipment are not explicitly mentioned in Article 25 and this article of the law. It should be noted, however, that prior to the implementation of this law, and until explicit cancellation of the supervision and inspection of the manufacturing process for lifting machinery and large-scale amusement facilities, the relevant provisions regarding such supervision and inspection must still be applied. After the implementation of this law, further regulations will be needed to determine whether supervision and inspection is to be carried out; otherwise, in principle, no such supervision and inspection will be conducted. Second, the special equipment whose installation, renovation, and major repairs must be subject to supervisory inspections includes seven categories of special equipment, excluding specialized motor vehicles used within premises (factories). Compared to the provisions in the “Regulations on the Safety Supervision of Special Equipment”, this adds the requirement that the installation, renovation, and major repairs of pressure pipelines must also be subject to supervisory inspections. The “Decision of the State Council on Establishing Administrative Licenses for Administrative Approval Items That Truly Need to Be Retained”, which came into effect on July 1, 2004, stipulates that the qualification assessment of units and individuals involved in the design, installation, use, and inspection of pressure pipelines is to be carried out by the **General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine** and the quality and technical supervision departments of local people’s governments at the county level or above. Including the supervision and inspection of the installation, modification, and major repair processes of pressure pipelines within the provisions of this law is of great significance for improving the safety supervision and management of such pipelines. IV. Forms of legal liability and issues related to the imposition of penalties: In the event of violations of the provisions of this article, the department responsible for the supervision and management of safety in relation to special equipment shall first order the party involved to make corrections within a specified time frame ; If the violation is not corrected by the deadline, a fine of not less than 50,000 yuan but not more than 200,000 yuan shall be imposed. An order to make corrections within a specified time limit is issued primarily because the manufacturing, installation, renovation, major repairs, and boiler cleaning of special equipment constitute a process. Before this process is completed, such an order ensures the safety of special equipment, provided that entities engaged in these activities promptly apply for and undergo supervisory inspections. If the violation is not corrected within the prescribed time frame and there are illegal gains, such illegal gains shall also be confiscated ; In serious cases, the production license of the entity shall be revoked. In accordance with Article 98 of this Law, if the acts listed in this article constitute the crime of producing or selling substandard products or other crimes under the Criminal Law, criminal liability shall be pursued in accordance with the law. When imposing the penalties stipulated in this article, there are four issues that need attention: 1. Regarding the department responsible for imposing the penalties. Any violations of the provisions of this article shall be punished by the department responsible for the safety supervision and management of special equipment at the location where the manufacturing, installation, renovation, major repair, or boiler cleaning activities of special equipment take place. In cases where activities related to the manufacturing, installation, modification, major repair, and cleaning of special equipment are carried out across administrative regions without undergoing supervision and inspection, and the relevant parties refuse to accept administrative penalties imposed by the department responsible for supervising the safety of such equipment in the location where these activities take place, the case may be referred to the department responsible for supervising the safety of special equipment in the location where the entity is registered for handling. 2. Regarding the calculation of illegal gains. Generally speaking, special equipment generates no profit before the manufacturing process is completed, and thus there are usually no illegal gains. The act of manufacturing units selling special equipment that has not been inspected may be profitable; other provisions are set out in Article 82 of this Law. Regarding the illegal gains resulting from installation, modification, major repairs, and boiler cleaning activities that were not subject to supervision and inspection, such gains are calculated based on the total income obtained from carrying out these activities, and not merely on the profit after deducting costs. 3. Regarding the revocation of the production license. For the illegal acts stipulated in this article, if the circumstances are serious, the production license shall be revoked. “\"Severe circumstances\" usually refer to illegal activities carried out by the relevant entities, the use of particularly harsh methods, the existence of significant risks that could lead to accidents, or repeated instances of illegal behavior coupled with a refusal to comply with inspections and supervision by law enforcement authorities. In such cases, the licensing authority decides to impose a penalty in the form of revoking the production license. 4. The issue regarding whether the penalty for unmonitored inspection is contingent on \"manufacture completion\" or \"delivery for use\". Special consideration was given when establishing legal responsibilities. This article primarily deals with the punishment for the illegal act of carrying out manufacturing, installation, modification, major repairs, or boiler cleaning of special equipment without undergoing supervised inspection. The principles that should be followed in handling such cases are as follows: those that are carried out without supervised inspection and have not been released from the factory or put into use shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of this article; those that are carried out without supervised inspection but are released for sale or put into use shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of Paragraph 3, Article 82 of this law.