Excise Movement & Control System (EMCS) Newsletter - issue 6 September 2009
Welcome to the latest EMCS Newsletter
The aim of this newsletter is to provide you with an update about EMCS project developments. We will issue the newsletter bi-monthly.
Inside this issue:
- Trade Consultations Update
- SEED Update
- Legislation Update
- Owners of Goods in Warehouse
- General Communications
- Useful links
1. Trade Consultations Update
EMCS Working Group & Sub-groups
Following representations from business, we have now decided to delay the introduction of EMCS in the UK to generate movements (Functional Stage 1) until 1 January 2011. You should continue to use the existing 'paper' AAD system until that date.
The system will however be available from 1 April 2010 to receive and receipt goods from operators in those Member States which are at FS1 at 1 April 2010. From that date where movements are received under EMCS, you must use EMCS to receipt and discharge those movements. If goods are received under the cover of the 'paper' AAD they should continue be receipted and discharged using the existing rules.
Precise details of which Member States that you can expect to receive EMCS movements from on 1 April are still not fully available, although we hope to be able advise you further very soon.
Also in response to concerns raised around the potential impact of including all intra-UK movements within the scope of EMCS some types of movement may - at the operator’s discretion and subject to certain conditions - be excepted. The attached letter to the EMCS working group provides further detail.
Technical Developers Group
HMRC Software Developers Support Team (SDST) are meeting with Software Developers on 15 October and invitations have been sent to Developers who have registered an interest. At the last meeting, the Local Test Service (LTS) was discussed in detail and we are pleased to advise that the first draft of the RIM Artefacts has been produced and will be baselined by early October.
The technical development of the EMCS online services application for Functional Stage 0 (FS0) and Functional Stage 1 (FS1) continues to progress. For FS1, we are designing User Interface Specification screen shots for a number of movement activities, including ‘Create a Movement’ and ‘Change of Destination’. These screenshots will provide a view of the online service web interface developments. We are currently developing individual business flows for various scenarios to help you understand how the system will work.
We will publish all of the relevant information on the SDST pages of the EMCS website as soon as the information is agreed and baselined.
We are still on schedule to release the LTS for FS1 in February 2010.
In the October edition of the newsletter, we will be providing information about which software developers have expressed an interest in providing an EMCS solution.
2. SEED Updated
We are pleased to advise that since the last newsletter we have successfully migrated all records to the new SEED system.
Despite the best efforts of our technical experts the4 problems with SEED on Europa continues. We continue to treat this as a priority and are working with our technical experts to resolve the few remaining issues.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all traders for their patience and understanding during what has been a difficult transitional period.
If you are experiencing problems because your excise approval is not showing on the SEED on Europa website please contact the National Verification Centre in Glasgow.
3. Legislation Update
The Commission Regulation 684/2009 was adopted on 24 July 2009. This Regulation outlines the structure and content of the electronic messages on EMCS, as well as the structure of the paper document to be used when the EMCS is unavailable. The Regulation is available at Europa (Opens new window).
The work on the UK domestic legislation implementing the new Council Directive 08/118 is progressing in time for implementation on 1 April 2010. A working version was circulated amongst businesses in August for information.
4. Owners of Goods in Warehouse
In the last edition of the EMCS newsletter, we published an article regarding Registered Consignors, a new trader type for the excise duty suspension regime which is being introduced as a result of the new Council Directive 08/118.
A registered consignor is a person whose business involves the despatch of third country goods in excise duty suspension once all customs duties have been paid or accounted for to HMRC satisfaction. If you are an owner of goods in warehouse who imports goods from third countries, a Registered Consignor, probably your import agent, will be required to use EMCS and raise an e-AD in order to continue to move your goods from the port to the excise warehouse. This will come into effect once businesses are able to despatch goods on the EMCS system. This is expected to be from 1 January 2011.
We will also be publishing more details regarding authorisation and the requirements of a Registered Consignor over the coming months.
You can find further information about Registered Consignors in the last edition of the EMCS newsletter which is available on the EMCS pages of the HMRC website.
5. General Communications
For more information on the development of EMCS please check the HMRC website 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.
6. Useful Links
EU Information
The EU Commission has recently issued EMCS News No 3 .This is available on the Europa website (Opens new window).
If you have any feedback, suggestions or comments relating to this newsletter please forward them to EMCS.
