EMCS (Excise Movement and Control System)

Created on 5th of June 2005   Last Modified on the 24th of August 2009

The Excise Movement and Control System (EMCS) is a major EU-wide project designed to simplify and improve the control of the movement of excise goods between EU Member States and thus minimise excise fraud. The UKTRF will therefore participate in HM Customs consultations on the development of the system to ensure that the particular characteristics of the travel retail business are accommodated and that additional costs are kept to a minimum.

The legal decision committing Member States and the European Commission to the development and implementation of EMCS, and providing the funding for the Commission’s components of the system, was signed in June 2003, with a specified completion by the summer of 2009. EMCS will cover all movements of alcohol, tobacco and energy products, such as oil and gas. The aim is to provide an EU-wide integrated electronic communication system for monitoring intra-EU movements of excise goods travelling under duty-suspension arrangements that will allow on-line verification of data and real-time notification of despatch and receipt of goods, thus helping to combat fraud and to simplify formalities. It will therefore replace the current paper-based Administrative Accompanying Document (AAD) arrangements. In broad terms, traders will exchange electronic messages containing information on the shipment, with simultaneous parallel messages being exchanged between the Customs authorities of the traders respective countries.

It is a massive project – the Functional Excise System Specification (FESS) issued in May 2005, alone runs to over 1400 pages and this has been followed by the Technical Excise System Specification (TESS) and the Security Excise System Specification (SESS). Member States are free to develop their own applications, within the overall constraints of interfacing with the Commission’s component of the system and the agreed timetable. HM Revenue and Customs have indicated that the UK system will cover all movements of excise goods, both within the UK and intra-EU.

In October 2008 a one year delay in implementation, to April 2010, was announced. However three Member States cannot meet even this deferred deadline, and the UK itself has decided on a two stage implementation during 2010. January 2011 now appears to be the most likely date for the full introduction of EMCS across the EU.

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