Excise Movement & Control System (EMCS) newsletter - issue 5 June 2009

Welcome to the latest EMCS Newsletter

Inside this issue:

 

EMCS UK Delivery Timeline

As you are aware, EMCS will be delivered in three functional stages (FS0, FS1 and FS2) and we are currently working to the following timeline for the successful implementation of EMCS in the UK ( we have included specific dates if known).

Date

Delivery

31 July 2009

SEED Data migration complete

September 2009

Implementing Regulations available

1 October 2009

EMCS National Service Desk (NSD) go live

December 2009


UK Regulations final draft

February 2010

Local Test Service (LTS) for Functional Stage 1 (FS1) released

February 2010

Registration and Enrolment for EMCS

1 April 2010


Implementation of EMCS Functional Stage 0 (FS0) Member States will be able to return an electronic Report of Receipt (RoR) to discharge a movement

1 November 2010

Implementation date of EMCS Functional Stage 1 (FS1) Member States will be able to send and receive messages electronically.

31 December 2011

Implementation date of EMCS Functional Stage 2 (FS2) provides the whole EMCS functionality

Trade Consultations Update

EMCS Working Group

On 5 May 2009, we met with the EMCS Working Group (which is made up of various Trade Association Representatives from the alcohol, tobacco and oil sectors) to discuss the UK Initial Member State (IMS) position, delivery timeline and project and policy developments.

We discussed the rationale behind the UK’s decision not to adopt Initial Member State status and acknowledged the impact this may have on businesses.

Various trade representatives expressed their concerns about the timing of introducing intra UK movements into EMCS for FS1. In conjunction with the Joint Alcohol Trade Consultative Group (JATCG) and EMCS Working Group Representatives we will be considering the options available and will keep you updated. The project team requested that trade representatives provide specific information detailing if/how a delay in implementing EMCS intra-UK movements could help businesses. We have already received helpful information from the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA). The potential impact of the delivery date on EMCS is under active consideration by policy owners in consultation with our technical suppliers.

We have agreed that the EMCS Working Group will be supported by sub groups for specific sectors. We have already met with the alcohol and tobacco sub groups and have planned a schedule of events to meet with representatives from the alcohol, oils, tobacco and freight forwarders sectors. These meetings will be on a more regular basis and will continue right up to the implementation in April 2010. We will notify the various sub groups of the dates over the coming weeks.

Technical Developers Group

HMRC Software Developers Support Team (SDST) met with Software Developers in June. This meeting provided developers with an opportunity to speak to the technical team directly. Presentations about the role of the SDST including the support they provide to 3rd party developers, the Local Test Service (LTS) and Rules and Interface Management (RIM) Service were delivered. The SDST explained what the LTS provides, the requirements that Software Developers need to meet in order to use the service and other technical details. (For example, message structures and classes, technical specifications and an overview of the HMRC mark.)

A number of discussions took place, including an open debate about non-functional requirements such as how often calls can be made to request messages, seek responses and the size of messages that could be sent and received. A number of options are being considered and we will advise further.

It was agreed that the existing volumetrics need to be validated and updated (They were originally provided by a selection of excise businesses some 18 months ago).

The presentation explaining the RIM service being used by EMCS included information about what information it holds and how it works. Explanations about RIM artefacts and XML Schema details were also provided.

The minutes and presentations of the Technical Developers meeting are available on the SDST pages of the HMRC website.

SEED Update

As detailed in our last newsletter, a number of trader records have failed to migrate to the new SEED system and the SEED on Europa website.

We are pleased to say that since the last newsletter we have made significant progress in repairing the traders’ records.

However, we are still experiencing some technical difficulties around moving some of the data to the two systems. These problems are being treated as the highest priority and we are working together with our technical experts to complete the migration of all trader records by the end of July 2009.

If your excise approval is still not showing on the SEED on Europa website please contact the National Verification Centre in Glasgow.

Registered Consignors

Are you involved in the importation of excise goods from third countries?

If so, you need to know how EMCS will affect you in the future. At present, goods can move from a place of importation to an excise approved warehouse with the excise duty suspended (providing that any customs duty charged on the goods is paid or otherwise accounted for.) The current legal requirement under Excise law is that the goods must at all times be accompanied by a document (For example, a commercial delivery note) containing prescribed information. This requirement is also produced within relevant import 07 series customs procedure codes at Appendix E2 of Volume 3 of the Tariff.

With the introduction of EMCS, this document will be replaced by the raising of an e-AD. To support this new approach, Council Directive 2008/118/EC Article 4(10) has introduced registered consignors as a new trader type.

In practice, this means a registered consignor will be able to despatch goods under excise duty suspension to:

  • a tax warehouse in the UK or another Member State
  • a registered consignee in another Member State
  • a place of exit from the Community (either a direct export from the UK or an indirect export via another Member State)

When will this happen?

From 1 November 2010, a registered consignor must access EMCS and submit e-ADs to despatch goods to allowable destinations. The declaration will require details of the import Single Administrative Document (SAD) entry reference number used to declare the goods to excise warehousing.

What does this mean for me?

We are in the early stages of agreeing the necessary legislation and developing the policy around registered consignors who will have to be authorised by HMRC before being able to access EMCS.

Our primary focus, at this stage, is to identify our target audience and raise initial awareness of this change to existing procedures. We believe that freight agents/forwarders are the main group involved in submitting CHIEF import SAD declarations for excise goods but we would welcome any details about other traders who may be caught under this new trader type. You can e-mail these details to Holding and Movement.

Next steps

As more information becomes available, we will include further updates about the requirements/responsibilities of a registered consignor on the EMCS pages of the HMRC internet and in future newsletters.

An EMCS Working Group meeting for representatives from the main freight forwarders’ trade associations will be held on 15 July. We will include a session on ‘registered consignors’ as part of our ongoing trade consultations.

General Communications

Over the coming months we will be updating the EMCS pages of the HMRC website to ease navigation to the various screens. There is a quick link to Excise available via the HMRC home page and we are currently investigating if we can provide a quick link directly to the EMCS pages.

For more information on the development of EMCS please check our EMCS pages or call our national contact centre on 0845 010 9000 (+442089290152 outside UK). Alternatively, please email EMCS if you have a query about the project.

Useful links

EU Information

The EU Commission publishes updated versions of EMCS specifications on the Europa website (Opens new window). For up to date information on the technical specifications for the development of EMCS please select the EMCS for Developers page (Opens new window)

The EU Commission has also developed the Business Prototype (BPR) which is a useful tool that illustrates the most important functionalities of EMCS. This is available from the Commission’s EMCS in Practice page (Opens new window) and select the EMCS Business Prototype (BPR) link at the bottom of the page.

HMRC Information

The technical development of the EMCS on-line services application for FS0 and FS1 is progressing. For FS0 we have designed and published User Interface Specification ‘screen shots’ for the Launch EMCS Service (PDF 2.7MB) and Submit Report of Receipt (PDF 1.2MB) which provides an overview of the look and feel of the on line service web interface developments.

Our SDST have published the EMCS Technical Pack which includes the Local Test Service (LTS- is a set of technical documents designed to allow Software Developers to build and test their systems to EU specifications) for FS0 and we expect LTS for FS1 to be released in February 2010.

If you have any feedback, suggestions or comments relating to this newsletter please email EMCS.