The European Commission launched a public consultation on 12 July to aks businesses and the public for their views on possible VAT simplifications to facilitate customs centralised clearance.

“Centralised clearance” is a possibility for the importers that hold an authorization to both declare and pay customs duties to the customs administration of their Member State of authorisation, independent from the place of import and destination of goods within the EU. However, under the present VAT rules, the importers, even using centralised clearance, would still be subject to VAT obligations in each Member State of physical arrival and destination of goods. The aim of this consultation is to obtain views on a series of solutions relating to the possible adaptions of VAT collection rules.

The consultation will run until 31 October 2010. You can find more information here.

The Dutch Institute for Advanced Logistics “Dinalog” was established earlier this year to realize the Dutch ambition to become European market leader in controlling flows of goods  passing through one or more European Countries by 2020. 

The Dinalog network consistis of many private and public organizations and knowledge institutions. The ‘Extended Single Window – Information Gateway to Europe’ is a Dinalog research project to develop solutions to issues faced by international logistics industry:

1.     Need for seamless and reliable supply chains;

2.     Compliance to revised European coordinated border management procedures;

3.     Need to reduce the costs of compliance to governance requirements.

The aim is to develop an integrated coordinated border management solution for ports and airports integrating with previous and subsequent procedures for reliable, secure, and cost effective logistic chains as a prerequisite for the Netherlands to serve as an excellent gateway to Europe.

This coordinated border management, ‘Extended Single Window’, requires efficient and reliable information for effective joint supply chain planning by shippers, goods owners, transport companies, forwarders, terminals and other logistic service providers and to use this information to meet government laws and regulations in a cost effective way. The main purpose of the Extended Single Window is re-usability of business data by all government authorities for all types of goods movements  and enabling existing Port Community Systems to behave as one Information Service Bus with innovative IT.

The projects needs to identify which safeguards for government controls need to be defined and how they can be supported by advanced IT with contribution of business and government authorities and in close cooperation with various demonstration projects (single window, Authorized Economic Operator (AEO)/system-based controls, centralized clearance/Single Authorization for Simplified Procedures).  It  is expected to lead to a drastic reduction of physical inspections of goods in the mainports by coordinated  planning of government authorities, reliable transport to and from hinterland hubs and administrative cost reduction.

We will keep you informed about this ambitious  Dutch project.

Source: www.dinalog.nl

In 2005, the EU Commission’s Project Group on Single European Authorization was given a mandate to examine a common approach in order to encourage the use of Single Authorizations, not only for customs procedures with economic impact and end-use, but also for simplified procedures at import and export, including cases in which a customs procedure with economic impact is followed by release for free circulation. With the passage of regulation (EC) 1192/2008 of the European Commission potential savings of implementing an SASP solution, can immediately be identified.

A Single Authorization for a simplified procedure provides the possibility of using the local clearance procedure or the simplified declaration procedure to perform the customs formalities in the Member State where the economic operator is established, for his imports/exports wherever they occur in the Community. It enables an economic operator to centralize the accounting and payment of customs duties for all transactions in the Member State where he is established, regardless of the place where the movement of goods occurs. The physical control and release of goods may take place in another Member State.

This is a major facilitation measure as the operator can:
- concentrate in-house customs expertise at a single location allowing for a reduction in office space, manpower, computer hardware/software;
- more efficient and flexible customs clearance via one customs office, for goods physically entering several Member States;
- communication with only one customs administration with respect to the release of the goods as well as all decisions and notifications.
- conduct the formalities in only one language.
- minimize inquiries by the customs authorities as the officials become more aware of your products, business and classifications.

A number of customs authorities have, on the basis of agreement with each other, authorized centralized clearance involving simplified entry of goods, which are located in another Member State, for the customs procedure concerned notably for inward processing, customs warehousing and less frequently, for release for free circulation. Although there may be benefits both for the economic operators and customs authorities, there are still several obstacles for granting the SASP that need to be agreed on a bilateral basis by the Member States, such as providing the statistical data to the concerned national authorities, VAT and allocating the collection cost of the custom duties. Economic operators that want to request a SASP need to fulfill the AEO requirements for simplified procedures. Since January 1 2009 economic operators can request for a SASP in the Member State where the main accounts for customs purposes are held.