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Government promises simpler customs

[ March 28, 2023   //   ]

The government announced new measures to simplify customs import and export processes for traders, taking advantage of new freedoms following EU exit, in the Budget on 15 March.

Improvements to the Simplified Customs Declaration Process (SCDP), following consultation in 2022, include increasing the amount of time traders have to submit their supplementary declaration for imports and exports from the fourth working day to the tenth calendar day of the month.

It is also increasing the amount of time traders have to submit their final supplementary declarations from the fourth working day the 11th calendar day of the month.

It is allowing traders to submit one supplementary declaration for goods imported over the course of a month (known as aggregation), reducing the total number of declarations that have to be submitted.

The government says it will work with stakeholders separately to set out the timeframes for delivery.

The government will also consult in Summer 2023 on a voluntary standard for customs intermediaries, with the aim of improving the overall quality of service. This follows feedback received as part of the 2022 Call for Evidence: An Independent Customs Regime, which indicated that quality varies across the customs intermediary market.

It is also planning measures to simplify transit procedures for outbound and inbound movements in response to user feedback. They will also improve the offer to authorised consignee/consignors.

For outbound movements, it will make it easier for authorised consignors to start a movement at a client’s premises by replacing the current paper-based approval process with digital notification.

It is also reducing costs for authorised consignors by making a 100% guarantee waiver the default position during the authorisation process and signposting applicants to the possibility of operating without a financial guarantee in place.

It is also clarifying how authorised consignors can start a transit movement from their (or their client’s) premises when exporting goods from standard export ports.

For inbound movements it is modernising the unloading process for authorised consignees, by clarifying how to end a transit movement when loading goods on ships, trains and planes that are destined for their stores, and simplifying the export declaration requirements in these cases.

Customs will engage with industry on these proposals in summer.

A Modernising Authorisations project will streamline and digitise the government’s customs and excise authorisation processes. HMRC will radically reduce the number of customs authorisations to make the new authorisations more facilitative.

There are currently 42 different customs authorisations which will be divided into five new authorisation groups: Authorised Economic Operator (AEO), Fiscal, Simplifications and Declarations, Transit, and Ports and Wharves. Excise authorisations will form another group. Traders will only have to make a single application to access all the facilitations within the group.

The new system will take a ‘once and done’ approach to data collection, so traders will never have to submit the same information twice, the government says.

Authorisations will be more visible to traders making it easier for them to identify and access those most suitable for their needs.

There will be a self-serve portal where traders can apply for and manage their authorisations, which will  replace paper applications and give traders real time updates.

The government will commence the next phase of engagement with industry on the Modernising Authorisations project in March and the project will move into delivery in the second half of 2023.

The government will also engage with industry in Spring 2023 on potential changes to enable more traders to  use Special Procedures, Temporary Storage and Duty Deferment without a financial guarantee. This would remove the cost of providing a guarantee for more traders who use these facilitations to delay (or in certain circumstances relieve) payment of import duties.

The government plans to engage with stakeholders on each of these measures in the coming months. It says the timetable also takes into account the existing systems changes, for example the final phase of transition to the Customs Declaration Service (CDS) and the first strategic release of the UK Single Trade Window (STW), that the government is conscious stakeholders are already committed to implementing later this year.

The government is also reviewing customs declarations requirements and will engage stakeholders on this work later in the year. The review will cover both simplified and standard customs declarations, for both imports and exports. It will have a particular focus on export declarations, as well as on ensuring that customs declarations do not impose disproportionate burdens on small and less experienced UK businesses.

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