The EU is developing the Excise Movement and Control System (EMCS) to carry out control of transit of excise goods within the Member States. The computerized EMCS system is used for movements of excise goods under suspension and replaces the paper Administrative Accompanying Document (AAD)  by an e-AD (electronic Administrative Document). Each Member State develops its own national EMCS application, which is connected to all other countries.

 

According to the Belgian planning of the EMCS roadmap, the roll-out would be performed as follows:

1 April 2010:  

• e-ADs from other Members States to Belgium have to be discharged electronically
• submitting e-Ads from Belgium to any other Member State is possible

 1 Juli 2010:

• realization of the link between PLDA and EMCS for import and export movements

 1 january 2011:

• all movements of excise goods under suspension of excise duty shall be carried out using EMCS

Belgian Customs will postpone the deployment milestone “1 July 2010″.  Probably the date will be shifted to 31 December 2010.

Specialist software suppliers have developed solutions based on the country specific requirements which allow fully automated exchange of messages with the authorities’ systems of the different countries. Belgian Customs Authorities have also made available a free EMCS web application.

Upon request, we can assist you with your decision which solution is best for your company. Customs4trade, being an independent customs and international trade advisory company, has guided national and international companies to the EMCS web and has assisted several clients to assess excise and/or customs activities. It is our aim to realize streamlined and uniform customs/excise authorizations and procedures.  This facilitates your software decisions and can lead to substantial savings on implementation and operational costs.

Whether your company is using an EMCS software solution or the EMCS-web, in both cases the  Authorized Economic Operators and AEO-candidates have to install control measures in order to make sure that their import/export process and procedures are AEO compliant.

 If you are interested in our EMCS services, just give us a call on +32 15 46 08 46 or send an e-mail to info@customs4trade.com

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.