Excise Movement and Control System (EMCS) - January 2012 stage

Since 1 January 2012 EMCS users can send and receive new messages for 'alert' and 'rejection' of movements, and any traders moving energy products can split a movement.

Messages for consignees - alert or rejection

Consignees receiving an electronic Administrative Document (eAD) can either reject the movement at once or send an alert to the consignor.

If the consignment is either incorrect or incomplete consignees can send an alert message to notify the consignor of any discrepancies, for example, the wrong quantities or wrong Combined Nomenclature (CN) codes (Commodity Codes). They can also advise the consignor that they will receive and accept the goods as they are (as long as the goods match the eAD) and use the report of receipt to detail any discrepancies or notify a partial refusal of the goods.

If a consignee receives a dispatch message which shows that the consignment is incorrect they can send a rejection message to notify the consignor before the goods have arrived at the consignees address (and in some cases before they have been dispatched).

For example the consignor may have selected the wrong consignee or it could be the right consignee but the wrong goods. Note that this is a separate message to a 'refusal' notification on the report of receipt which is used to refuse, or partially refuse, the goods once they have arrived at the consignees address.

Messages for consignors - alert or rejection

Consignors receiving an alert message may need to discuss the movement of the goods with the consignees before deciding if they need to do one of the following:

• leave things as they are, let the movement continue and deal with any discrepancies on the report of receipt
• input a change of destination, which can include back to the place of dispatch and splitting (for energy products only)
• cancel the eAD if the goods have not left the place of dispatch and the date of dispatch has not passed

Consignors who receive a 'rejection' message must take one of the following actions:

• input a change of destination, which can include back to the place of dispatch and splitting (for energy products only)
• cancel the eAD but only if the goods have not left the place of dispatch and the date of dispatch has not passed

Energy products - splitting movements

Consignors have been able to split consignments of energy products intended for different destinations into two or more parts since 1 January 2012. To do this the consignor submits a series of draft eADs to replace the original one.

A consignor may want to split a movement for one of the following reasons:

• Coastal shipping - the goods are to be delivered in several harbours or to several consignees in the same harbour. In these situations the consignor does not know in advance who the consignees are and/or the quantities to be delivered to each. This is often in connection with Article 15.6 of Directive 92/12/EEC (unknown destination).
• Change of destination of a part of the goods - an event in the transport makes it necessary to change the final destination, for example low water level in a waterway.
• Change of destination following a partial refusal - however, if the remaining goods are being moved to a single new consignee, the consignor should follow the change of destination procedure instead.

The new place of delivery is any place of delivery accepted for a change of destination this includes:

• a tax warehouse
• export to a country outside the EU
• the premises of a registered consignee or of a temporary registered consignee in another EU Member State
• a place of direct delivery (if authorised for direct delivery)

Only one of the new destinations can be the same as for the initial e-AD, this includes changes to 'unknown' destinations (if the original movement was to an unknown destination then only one of the subsequent splits can be to an unknown destination; if the original movement was to a known destination then all subsequent splits must also be to known destinations) and the global balance of quantities must remain exactly the same.

Each 'new' eAD for the split consignments is given a unique Administrative Reference Code (ARC), called a downstream ARC, and has its own complete lifecycle as if it were a new movement. The original ARC, called the upstream ARC, is included as a reference field in each downstream ARC.
It is also possible to further split a downstream ARC.

Please note: The HMRC Online Service can not be used by traders to split a movement of energy products. Any traders who want to split a movement of energy products must do one of the following:

• discuss their requirements with their own software developer (if they currently use commercial software)
• contact a software developer who provides a 'splitting' package
• build an in-house package - if you choose this option you will need to register with the HMRC Software Developers Support Team (SDST), follow the link below to find out how to contact SDST

Traders can view and complete the report of receipt for a 'split' movement using the HMRC Online Service.

Software Developers Support Team