UT/2023/000029 - [2024] UKUT 00079 (TCC)

During the relevant period, the CCC and Implementing Regulation set out the requirements for the operation of the IPR procedure, including provisions relating to authorisation and the ways in which the procedure could be discharged.

For the purposes of this appeal, the main relevant provision of the CCC is Article 204, which specifies when a customs debt can be incurred in the following terms:

“1.

A customs debt on importation shall be incurred through:

(a)

non-fulfilment of one of the obligations arising, in respect of goods liable to import duties, … from the use of the customs procedure under which they are placed, or

(b)

non-compliance with a condition governing the placing of the goods under that procedure …,

in cases other than those referred to in Article 203 unless it is established that those failures have no significant effect on the correct operation of the … customs procedure in question.

2.

The customs debt shall be incurred either at the moment when the obligation whose non-fulfilment gives rise to the customs debt ceases to be met or at the moment when the goods are placed under the customs procedure concerned where it is established subsequently that a condition governing the placing of the goods under the said procedure … was not in fact fulfilled.

3.

The debtor shall be the person who is required, according to the circumstances, either to fulfil the obligations arising, in respect of goods liable to import duties, … from the use of the customs procedure under which they have been placed, or to comply with the conditions governing the placing of the goods under that procedure.”

The requirements for the holder of an authorisation to keep records and provide a BoD are set out in the Implementing Regulation. Article 515 of that Regulation provides that the customs authorities must require the holder of an authorisation to keep records, save for temporary importation. The required list of records is set out in Article 516 and includes:

“(c)

the date and reference particulars of other customs documents and any other documents relating to entry and discharge;

(d)

the nature of the processing operations, types of handling or temporary use;

…

(f)

information enabling the goods to be monitored, including their location and particulars of any transfer;

(g)

commercial or technical descriptions necessary to identify the goods;

(h)

particulars enabling monitoring of the movements under the inward processing arrangements operating with equivalent goods”.

Article 496(j) of the Implementing Regulation defines “records” as meaning:

“the data containing all the necessary information and technical details on whatever medium, enabling the customs authorities to supervise and control the arrangements, in particular as regards the flow and changing status of the goods; in the customs warehousing arrangements records are called stock records”.

Article 521(1) of the Implementing Regulation requires a BoD to be supplied within 30 days of expiry of the period for discharge, where the suspension system is applied. Under Article 521(2), the BoD must contain the following particulars, unless otherwise determined by the supervising office:

“(a)

reference particulars of the authorisation;

(b)

the quantity of each type of import goods in respect of which discharge, repayment or remission is claimed or the import goods entered for the arrangements under the triangular traffic system;

(c)

the CN code of the import goods;

(d)

the rate of import duties to which the import goods are liable and, where applicable, their customs value;

(e)

the particulars of the declarations entering the import goods under the arrangements;

(f)

the type and quantity of the compensating or processed products or the goods in unaltered state and the customs-approved treatment or use to which they have been assigned, including particulars of the corresponding declarations, other customs documents or any other document relating to discharge and periods for discharge;

(g)

the value of the compensating or processed products if the value scale method is used for the purpose of discharge;

(h)

the rate of yield;

(i)

the amount of import duties to be paid or to be repaid or remitted and where applicable any compensatory interest to be paid. Where this amount refers to the application of Article 546, it shall be specified;

(j)

in the case of processing under customs control, the CN code of the processed products and elements necessary to determine the customs value.”

Article 859 of the Implementing Regulation provides specific rules on when certain failures are considered to have “no significant effect” for the purposes of Article 204(1) CCC:

“The following failures shall be considered to have no significant effect on the correct operation of the … customs procedure in question within the meaning of Article 204(1) of the [CCC], provided:

- they do not constitute an attempt to remove the goods unlawfully from customs supervision,

- they do not imply obvious negligence on the part of the person concerned, and

- all the formalities necessary to regularise the situation of the goods are subsequently carried out:

…