Excise tariffs are different in the Member States of the European Union. The excise duty must be paid according to the excise tariff of the Member State where the excise goods will be consumed and to the Member State where the goods will be consumed. The EU is developing the Excise Movement and Control System or EMCS to carry out control of transit of excise good between the member states by using a computerized system.

EMCS is an electronic EU wide arrangement that will be applicable from 1 April 2010 for the transport of excise goods for which no excises have been paid yet. This system applies in principle to all excise duty goods which concern alcohol and alcoholic beverages, tobacco products and energy products.

EMCS will replace the paper-based procedure, where the circulation and control of intra-community movements of excise goods in duty-suspension can only take place between authorised economic operators and must be accompanied by a paper-based document – the Accompanying Administrative Document (ADD) and a guarantee financially securing the movement, both of which can only be discharged when the goods arrive at their destination.

Due to the introduction of EMCS, transit of the excise goods on which no duty has yet been paid or excise duty suspension procedure will be accompanied by the electronic ‘administrative document’. The realization of EMCS is meant to help to tackle excise fraud by creating a faster and more efficient means of information exchange between excise authorities. The new system is intended to provide better management and control of intra-EU duty suspended movements of excise goods, and to simplify procedures for warehouse keepers.

Each member state will develop its own national EMCS application which will connect to all other countries though a central interface enabling data exchange maintained by the EU. The “electronic AAD” will enable electronic messages containing specific consignment and movement information to be exchanged throughout the EU, from the time the movement begins to receipt of goods at destination. EMCS will link over 80,000 traders with 25 national administrations across all EU Member States. The EMCS Computerisation Project will specify and support the operation of EMCS across all Member States.

Specialist software suppliers are developing solutions based on the country specific requirements which will allow fully automated exchange of messages with the authorities systems of each country. The Belgian Customs Authorities will also put a free EMCS web application for the concerned operators.

EMCS will gradually be implemented in different EU Member States during a transitional period starting from 1 April 2010 to 31 December 2010. During this transitional period, the paper-based system will continue alongside the electronic system. In order to simplify the coexistence of the two systems, any given movement that starts with one of the two systems (paper or electronic procedure) should finish with the same system by the consignee of the excise goods. As a result, companies having the necessary permits to receive excise goods in EMCS will be required to handle the receipt of those excise goods electronically in EMCS. On 1 January 2011, the written ‘administrative accompanying document’ ceases to exist.

The Multi Annual Strategic Plan (MASP) aims to harmonise and automate the exchanges of Customs & Excise within the European Union.  The aim of the MASP program is to implement an electronic customs in the EU by replacing the customs procedures on paper by electronic procedures.  In this project, each member state is responsible for the correct local implementation of the MASP.  The Belgian Authorities have, in this perspective, built a dedicated site providing information relating to the local development in Belgium: MASP.be. This site fonctions as communication channel about the project to all concerned parties and will be regularly updated.  C4T will keep you updated with summaries of the given presentations. 

Noël Colpin, the actual Administrator of the Belgian Customs and Excise Administration is candidate for the post of Secretary General of the World Customs Organization (WCO). www.colpin.be is the official website for our belgian candidate. In June it will be announced who will succeed the actual Secretary General, Michel Danet from France for a term of 5 years.

The WCO is the only international organisation focused on customs matters. Located in Brussels, it has 171 members across the globe at all stages of economic development that collectively process approximately 98% of world trade. More info on www.wcoomd.org.

Yesterday, March 11th, Lieve Meyers from the blog Taxtalk, Ann Vissers (C4T) and Pieter Haesaert (C4T) had an interview with Noël Colpin about customs worldwide, the World Customs Organisation, the new players in the logistic field and the consequences for customs.

This podcast interview will be available next week on our site.