Evaluation of current arrangements for the holding and moving of excise goods under excise duty suspension : final report

Almost 99% of all intra-EU movements of excise duty goods take place under suspension of excise duty. Annually, this amounts to approximately 3.5 million individual movements of energy, alcohol and tobacco products with a total financial value of EUR 270 billion and associated excise duty of EUR 90 billion. By setting common rules under which excise goods can move across borders before being subject to payment of excise duty or leaving the EU customs territory, Directive 2008/118/EC and the implementing rules surrounding it aim to balance the need for a fully functioning and efficient EU internal market with the monitoring and control measures required for ensuring the proper collection of excise duty - a major source of revenue for the Member States. This study, commissioned by the European Commission and performed by Ramboll, has analysed an array of qualitative and quantitative data and concluded that the EU rules have indeed achieved the objectives of simplifying and modernising excise procedures, making a strong contribution towards the proper functioning of the internal market, improving the control of traders and consignments, and providing administrations with appropriate prior information to facilitate timely, targeted and selective controls. Improvements and solutions to practical problems which still exist have also been sought and have resulted in a number of recommendations, mainly relating to: Treatment of authorisations and guarantees ; The functioning of the general arrangements, as well as specific features of the current system, such as handling exceptions (e.g. irregularities, shortages, maximum journey times, etc.) ; Practical problems with the current arrangements ; Specific arrangements for certain types of product (e.g. certain energy and alcohol products) ; Coherence with customs procedures.